Stargate: The Guardian's Order
by Seraphin2011
Summary: The story follows the advantures of Liam, an Alterran who decides to leave the higher plane of existance in order to take care of the many mistakes his race made before ascending.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**A****uthor's notes:**

Hi everyone. I started writing this story for fun and to learn to write in English a little better. I have already written many more chapters beside this one, but I would really like to find a beta reader before posting them all. Since English is not my native language i suppose there will be a lot of errors inside. So, whoever is a beta reader and has some spare time, please contact me.

Also, if you like the story, please feel free to write a review. If you don't, also write a review, but be kind and most importantly do so by using constructive criticism. I always like to hear what people liked and what they didn't and, who knows, maybe you can give me some ideas how to make the story even better.

This first chapter and the next one are mostly to explain how things turned differently in season 8 of SG-1 and season 1 of SGA since, in this story, there is a new player on the galactic scene that will change things quite a bit, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. I don't have to mention how it would be a good thing if you watched the show first, before reading the story.

That's all from me. Here the story begins.

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Unknown Nebula**

Liam tried to open his eyes, but it wasn't easy. He was feeling cold and disoriented, also not remembering where he was. He tried again to open his eyes and, this time, he was at least partially successful, as everything was still blurry and the light was hurting his eyes, giving him a slight headache, but at least this time they didn't close. He wanted to close them again and go back to sleep, but he knew he had to wake up. He needed to find where he was.

As his sight became clearer, he made a few uncertain steps before his legs gave out. For some reason his legs were unable to hold his weight. He slumped to the hard and cold floor, immediately finding out that his hands were not in a much better condition. He turned and saw the stasis pod engraved into the wall behind him. He then remembered where he was and why his body was feeling so weak. He cursed, thinking on the reason why his race had always been so stubborn in making stasis pods standing upright instead of lying them down in a horizontal position. It would have been much safer to get out of them and he wouldn't have a bleeding nose right now. He decided it would be a good thing to remain on the floor for a few more minutes, knowing the weakness he was feeling would last for only a little while longer. He looked around the large room, recognizing the various consoles only meters from where he was lying on the floor. It was the central control room of the space station he remembered having hidden when the war with the Wraith had started. If he was right, it should had past more than ten thousand years since that happened, but he would have to check that out if he wanted to be certain.

As he felt the strength in his body return, he slowly started the slow and difficult crawl toward one of the close by consoles only five meters from him. It took several minutes to reach it and even more to sit on the chair in front of it. He was glad nobody was here to see him while he was in such a compromising position. Finally having reached the chair, he sat, looking around the room one more time. The Stargate on the opposite side of the room caught his attention, especially since it didn't reassemble the usual stargate he was accustomed to see. This gate was purple and had 46 symbols on it, as opposed to the 39 or 36 symbols on those in the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies. He then remembered why the gate was different, he remembered how when the war with the Wraith had started, he hadn't felt safe to go into a stasis pod and sleep for such a long period of time while remaining in the Pegasus galaxy. He'd then decided to tow the large space station on the long journey to the Andromeda galaxy where he felt it would have been much safer and where he could start other projects without the constant threat of the Wraith. He had hidden the station in a remote location inside a dense nebula that was supposed to protect his location from curious eyes and, apparently, his plan had worked since he was still alive and there were no aliens crawling around the station.

The rest of the room was the same as he remembered it with the usual Alterran style of building things. The station was completely made of metal and it could withstand the passage of time without turning into an old junk. His race had always built things to last and it wasn't strange at all the station looked the same as the day he went to stasis.

Liam took another deep breath before leaning forward on the console in front of him and before continuing with his long overdue work.

'_Let's see what happened in the universe while I was asleep,'_ Liam thought.

As he touched the console in front of him, the display automatically came to life. It was a good sign too. There was always a chance something might broke in the time he was asleep, and he didn't felt like going around the station repairing things, not yet at least. After a few keystrokes, the display showed the Milky Way, Pegasus and Andromeda galaxies, all filled with small dots evenly spread inside them. Those dots represented all the satellites the Alterran had placed a very long time ago as part of an old project, too old to even remember what it was. The project had never been finished, but the satellites remained, never knowing if or when they would become useful again. The dots in all three galaxies started to change color from their current dull grey. Some were turning into a nice green color Liam was happy to see, while others were regretfully turning into red, indicating the satellite had been damaged during the long wait. Liam waited patiently until all of them registered to his system. There were thousands of them in each galaxy, and most of them had thankfully turned green. He pushed a few more keystrokes on the console and the satellites began feeding the station with a staggering amount of data they had collected during his long absence. When he was satisfied that enough data had been received, he focused his view on the Milky Way galaxy and further until the display showed only his long lost home planet Terra. It was amazing how, no matter the fact that millions of years had passed since the last time he had been on the planet, the planet was still his birthplace and had special meaning for him.

Liam read the data, his eyes growing larger, stunned at what he was learning about the planet and the people that now inhabited it. Humans had progressed immensely in the time he had been asleep, much more than what he'd believed they would. They were already traveling the stars, something that wasn't easy to accomplish, but the thing that intrigued him the most was that Terra had been visited frequently by the Asgard and he was very surprised to learn they'd made contact with the humans there and that they had befriended them in the last five years or so.

'_It looks like they've made friends.'_

The next few hours Liam spent reading the large amount of data he'd received from the satellite network. He'd learned quite a lot about the state of affairs in the two galaxies that intrigued him the most. He couldn't believe the Goa'uld had become so powerful in the ten thousand years he was asleep. Even more stunning was the fact that humans from Terra were able to go toe-to-toe with them, successfully fighting their tyranny and lust for power. From what he was reading, it appeared as the Goa'uld terror was finally coming to an end. He was grateful for it. He knew his people were, in no small part, responsible for the current state of the galaxy and especially the rise in power of the Goa'uld. The Stargate was a marvel of technology, allowing people to travel on so many planets with incredible ease, but it had also allowed the Goa'uld to leave their birth planet and spread across the stars. Combined with their negligence in keeping their technology from lying around everywhere just to be taken, someone could clearly state that what happened was in large part their fault.

Liam sighed, continuing to read the various reports he had access to. His satellites were more than capable of hacking Earth's _outdated _systems and he knew that the reports from something they called 'Stargate Command' would give him most of the information he needed. He was fascinated by the heroics those people had displayed in the past. In less than ten years since they'd started using the Stargate they accomplished quite a lot. As he read further the reports, he understood something that made him very perplexed. It was the little fact that people on Earth didn't know about the Stargate program or the fact that they weren't alone in the universe. How they'd managed to keep it a secret, or _why_, eluded him. He knew that this _would_ one day come to bite them in the ass. He was sure of it.

As he turned to the Pegasus galaxy to see what was happening there, he found there was another problem there. His plan was to wake up just before the ZPMs in Atlantis were depleted and inhabit the city. As it turned out, the city had already been taken by the humans from Earth and it looked like things weren't going so well. The Wraith had also awakened, and they were very angry at the new people currently residing in Atlantis. Also, the city didn't have the much-needed ZPMs to be powered properly and, to make things worse, Earth had no way of helping them. They only had one ship they called Prometheus and another one still months from completion. The Daedalus looked as a much better ship than his predecessor, with shields and propulsion systems clearly being made from the grounds up by the Asgard, but their offensive capabilities were horrible to say the least. With missiles that can be easily intercepted and railguns that could only be useful against smaller ships, the Earth vessel didn't stand a chance against a ship like a Wraith Hive.

'_Well, I think I should do something about that,' _Liam thought. They would need help, and fast if they wanted to have at least a chance of survival. He noticed that their R&D back on Earth was developing some kind of plasma weapon based on Goa'uld technology, but they were a long way from having a prototype ready. Liam thought about it for a moment and decided it would be a good way to start helping them. He retrieved some weapon schematics he had in his database and, in conjunction with their designs, he created a hybrid system that the humans would be able to understand and, most importantly, produce. Their manufacturing capabilities were a problem. Several key systems in his original designs couldn't be produced without energy based matter converters or at least a nanite assisted production line like those the Alterrans or Asgard were using for as long as he could remember. Because of it, he needed to simplify the weapon's designs, but without affecting its efficiency too much. He had worked for another hour and when he was satisfied with the results, he sent the data to Earth as well as a few other things he thought they would greatly appreciate. The humans on Earth would now have something to keep them busy and now it was time to do the same for the Asgard. Their situation was even more precarious and in need of immediate help.

Even before going to stasis, Liam had known what the faith of the Asgard would be if they didn't find a cure for their degenerative disease and he had worked hard for several years in order to find anything relevant that could help them. He found the appropriate files and sent them as well, hoping it would be enough. He also knew his ascended brothers and sisters wouldn't be too happy with his actions, but he'd decided a long time ago that things needed to change, no matter the cost.

'_Ah… I really don't care what they think. I'll help the Asgard no matter what,'_ Liam thought.

As on cue…'You are interfering Liam… again,' a female voice came from behind him.

'_That was fast,' _he thought.

"Hello Aenea, nice to see you too," Liam said while turning to face the woman.

"Hello _husband_."

The way she'd said the second word, made chills go down his spine. '_Oh she's pissed, and worst of all, she had ten thousand years to prepare for this reunion. I'm clearly in the disadvantage here.' _He needed to postpone this meeting and have some time to prepare. '_Quick! Think of something!'_

Of course, nothing came to mind. Instead, "You look well", was the idiotic response he gave. Saying something like that to an ascended being that looked the same for the last several million years, wasn't the smartest thing to say.

As he'd predicted, the _'monolog'_ began and it lasted for almost an hour. At that moment, Liam did the only thing he could do, the thing that he had learned a long time ago he must do in such occasions, to shut up and listen.

There had been a few moments when she looked so pissed that he was certain she would conveniently forget about their rules of noninterference and just fry him like a steak. So, occasionally he would give a nod or, if he felt bold enough, he would say 'yes dear' or 'you are right dear', the whole time waiting and hoping she would calm down. Of course it was his fault, there was no doubt about it. He was the one who'd decided to leave the higher plane of existence and her in the process. To make things worse, he had done it for reasons she didn't quite understand.

Suddenly his wife's expression changed from anger to concern. "You know, the others are not happy with you and with what you're planning to do."

"I know, but… I've decided a long time ago that something must be done, and I stand by my decision."

"And you don't care about the consequences of your actions?"

"The lack of consequences _is_ the reason I've left in the first place. I couldn't just stand by and do nothing, not anymore. "

"I have to go. Be careful, they are watching," she said with apparent concern, but she also wanted to end the conversation quickly.

"I will, and keep me apprised if anything changes upstairs."

"You still think that it will, don't you?"

"I do. Without change, life has no meaning." Liam replied with conviction in his voice.

She disappeared moments later, leaving Liam alone once more.

* * *

**Earth - SGC**

Sam was working on her laptop in her small lab, trying to understand the weapon Jack had created to help the Asgard destroy the Replicators. She'd tried to ask Jack how he'd done it, but from his expression, she'd soon realized it was a waste of time and decided she would be better off on her own.

While she was working, her screen started flickering and she was sure her laptop was ready to die on her. She cursed, also promising to herself never to buy a Dell ever again, when suddenly the display came back to normal, but it also showed something else. It showed several new schematics she'd never seen before. She looked at them for the next few minutes and the only thing she could say was, "What the fuck?"

She'd spent the next fifteen minutes on the phone talking to people from the R&D department before deciding she had enough. She stormed out of her office with her laptop in hand to talk to the person in charge and see what he thinks about all this.

Jack was walking down the hallway, not exactly knowing where he was going. The only thing he knew for certain was that he already ate, so the mess hall was out of the question, and that he didn't want to go back to his office. The last two nights he had spent having nightmares related to the tons of paperwork he'd been doing these days.

"Sir!" Carter was calling him from behind.

'_Good, something must be important for her to run like that. Maybe I'll have an excuse for NOT being in my office for the next few hours.' _Jack thought with amusement.

"Carter! What's up?" Jack quipped cheerfully.

"Sir, I have something to show you, it's important," she said practically bouncing with excitement.

"Then… show away."

"Not here, sir. I think it's better if we go to your office", Carter opined, immediately noticing the angry expression on the General's face. Not really knowing what she'd done wrong, she decided to just wait.

Jack reluctantly nodded and led the way to his office. Once inside, he immediately noticed the ever-growing stack of paper on the left side of his desk. He cursed, softly asking God what he'd done wrong for being punished in such a way.

"Well, what is it?" Jack asked while sitting behind his desk.

"Sir, something strange happened to my computer less than half an hour ago."

'_Is she joking? If she starts talking about her computer AGAIN, I'm going to shoot myself'_, Jack thought, but waited; maybe there was more.

"I've just got a ton of schematics on my laptop depicting several key systems for the Daedalus, ranging from weapons, thrusters, propulsion, energy distribution and a lot more."

"So what? Somebody from R&D sent them to you. What's so strange about that?"

"That's the thing sir, no one from Area 51 sent me anything, and the strange thing is that these schematics are considerable upgrades to our current systems."

"What do you mean exactly by upgrades?" Jack was now more than simply curious.

Sam leaned forward, showing one of the schematics on her computer screen, "This one looks like the prototype weapon the guys at Area 51 are working on, but they are months, or maybe even years from finishing something that could actually work. Instead, this one is finished and with several improvements from the original concept."

"Carter, are you saying that someone has given us a working design of a big honking space gun!"

"Even better. These designs can be easily scaled up and down. We can make weapons that can fit on any type of vessel, even on our fighters. And as I said, there are more designs in here for a better propulsion system, power distribution and a lot more."

Jack observed Carter as she looked like a fat kid in a candy store without supervision, "But how? Did the Asgard have anything to do with this?"

"I don't know sir, but I don't think so. There is something else", Carter said with a sheepish expression plastered all over her face.

Of course, it was too good to be true. There had to be something that would make a good news end up being a bad news. He felt the sword falling down even before Sam explained.

"It looks like, before we got these designs, someone managed to access our database. I checked at Area 51 and the same thing happened there too."

"Carter, what did they get?" Jack asked dreading the answer.

"Everything sir."

"Crap! Do you know how much paperwork is that going to cost me?" Jack was furious.

'_Really? THAT'S the biggest problem he has in all of this,' _Sam thought_._ "I can imagine, sir."

"All right, do we know anything? Who, how or why at least?" He had to call the President for this and he really needed something to calm him down, or it would be hell to pay.

"Nothing sir, we don't even know where to start looking," Carter said with an apologizing look.

"Alright, try to find what you can, and next time we see the Asgard, we ask if they know something. As far as I know, they are the only one that can pull off something like this."

Sam nodded and stormed out of the office, leaving Jack to the horrible sight of his desk with the stack of paperwork on one side and the red phone on the other. Somehow, the paperwork didn't look so terrible at the moment.

* * *

**Ida Galaxy**

Finally, it was payback time. For so long the Replicators had made a mockery of the Asgard Fleet and, with that, a mockery of him. Now things were different. With this new weapon at his disposal, the Replicators were on the run and he enjoyed every moment of it. The best part was that their ships would usually remain intact after the fight, hence salvageable.

Only moments after the fight had been over, Thor noticed his comm. system was receiving a lot of data. He cautiously looked at the data he was receiving, positive it was some nasty virus the dying Replicators had sent, and he really didn't want to spend the next few hours cleaning up his systems. However, after a while he became more and more interested, now being certain that in fact it wasn't a virus. As he read more, his eyes grew larger and larger, as if that was even possible for an Asgard. Suddenly he became very excited, again, as excited as an Asgard could possibly be. He literally didn't know if he should go left or right. Suddenly he stopped in his track trying to calm down. Such behavior was unbecoming for the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, no matter the reason. When he was satisfied he was calm enough, he opened a channel to the Asgard High Council. To Thor, the seconds it took to establish the connection felt like hours. Finally, the connection was established and the large display showed Odin on the other end. Thor didn't wait for any pleasantries and started speaking in his native language at least a thousand words per minute. Odin was excited as well and soon the display showed several other Council members as well as their lead geneticist, Heimdall.

"What do you think Heimdall", Thor asked with impatience.

"It will be of great help. This data will be instrumental in stopping the disease and, one day, we may be even able to procreate again."

The entire Council was in awe as well as Thor. They never thought it could be possible. Beating the degenerative disease the cloning process had created was hard to accomplish but they always knew it was a possibility, but being able to procreate again was another matter entirely.

"Thor, do you know who sent this data?" Odin asked.

"No, the carrier wave seemed to originate from everywhere. There is no way I can locate the source. Maybe if the communication happens again, I could be better prepared to scan for the source", Thor said.

"You know what this can mean. Only one other race has the capability necessary to find a cure for us, at least, that we know of," Odin said.

Thor blinked twice. "It is possible, but why would the Alterran refrain from contacting us in a more direct manner?"

"I cannot be certain Thor, but we know the Alterrans had on several occasions behaved in a strange way that we did not understand until we saw the end results", Odin opined.

"If that is the case, they will show themselves eventually. In the meantime, I will keep a watchful eye for any evidence. Somehow, I believe the people of Earth will soon get involved as well. They always do.", Thor opined while emphasizing the last part.

The connection ended and Thor continued with his task of preparing his ship to tow the captured one to their home planet where it was going to be repaired or, if not possible, at least used as raw material.

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy**

Liam had been very busy in the last few months. One of the problems was that his timetable had been shortened considerably. Not only things in the Pegasus galaxy didn't go as he had predicted, but the state of the Andromeda galaxy was also troubling. The Alterran had never populated the Andromeda galaxy and they had never performed any terraforming on any planet. Still, since Andromeda was the biggest galaxy in the local cluster, it had a lot of naturally occurring habitable planets, but for some reason, there hadn't been any race advanced enough to travel the stars ten thousand years ago. Things were different now. Several races had reached that level and some were showing clear signs of hostility and xenophobia toward others, with one of them being pretty close to the region of space he'd inhabited.

Moving wasn't an option, he knew that. Too many projects were placed here to just leave. While he was in stasis, not everything awaited for his return. The only ZPM factory still available in the whole Alterran domain was here and the factory had spent the last ten thousand years producing ZPMs. ZPMs were incredibly difficult to produce since they're actually nothing more than a very sophisticated battery that, once constructed, it needed to be charged. To charge a ZPM the factory needed to be positioned near a massive star or pulsar and with equally massive solar panels, the energy from the star would be stored inside the ZPM. In the beginning, it had taken five years to charge a ZPM but, as time passed by, the station deteriorated more and more and the last ZPM was charged in almost fifty years. now that he was awake, the factory needed to be repaired.

Other facilities had also been built in the same system, which was another reason for not being able to leave. Shipyards and factories awaited silently his return in order to start production of anything he would need on his quest. Of course, Liam thought about activating those facilities before going to stasis, but there were too many unknown variables to do such a thing. He thought about what could have happened if someone had accidentally found hundreds of Alterran warships ready to be taken. He could have made quite the impact on the universe, and not in a good way. Being guilty for the possible death of untold races hadn't been something he had been prepared to take a chance of happening, no matter how small the chance. Instead, he'd taken out all control crystals from the shipyards and factories, and left them without power. Since they had been placed on various moons without oxygen to support life, he'd believed they would remain intact for the next ten thousand years he would have spent in stasis. As it was, all his assets were in good condition and once the power was again restored, the facilities would take care of themselves. All facilities were automated and if there had been some minor damage, it would repair itself in time. All this was going to be of great use to Liam in the incoming years, but this wasn't the most important asset he had.

More than ten thousand years ago, he'd started a project similar to the one his brothers and sisters had done a long time before that. When the plague came to the Milky Way galaxy, the Alterran were decimated and they eventually had to flee to the Pegasus galaxy. That was almost five million years ago and it took them several more million years to terraform thousands of planets and spread life on them in a completely new galaxy. More than five hundred thousand years ago, the Pegasus galaxy was flourishing with human life and everything looked great except for one thing. The number of Alterrans was diminishing rapidly. This time it wasn't the plague the problem, it was ascension. More people ascended than they were born. Still, the Alterran believed that the humans in Pegasus needed guidance and decided to take some humans from one planet and advance them as much as they could, both biologically and technologically, in the short time they had left. That is how the Lantean race had been born, and Atlantis was given to them for safekeeping as well as a beacon of light for the other humans in the galaxy.

Much in the same way, Liam started a project in the Andromeda galaxy that eventually created the Edenian race. The Edenians grew both in numbers and as an advanced society. They lived their lives to the fullest without worrying about wars, hunger or enemies from the sky since the Andromeda galaxy, strangely enough, didn't have space ferrying races.

Liam moved to another console and started pushing a few buttons. It was time to lift the time dilation field he had placed in their system and pay them a visit. The time to fulfill their destiny as guardians had come. He beamed to his ship, sat in the control chair, and started activating the ship's systems. Moments later, he entered hyperspace directed to Eden Prime.

The voyage didn't take long since the planet was only a few thousand light years away. Immediately upon arrival, he entered orbit above their capital city and beamed down in front of the tallest building on the planet. A woman walking by, stared at him for a long time before turning to the statue in front of the building. Suddenly, she looked all excited when she understood the statue and the man in front of her looked the same.

"Ancestor Liam?" the woman said unsure.

"Yes", Liam replied with a smile on his face.

The woman's eyes grew so large Liam thought they would pop out from their sockets. She turned abruptly and started running toward the main building, leaving Liam to stand there like an idiot.

She must have understood that she forgot something because she turned and ran back towards him.

"If you would like to follow me, we can inform the Council of your arrival", she said with an apologizing look.

Liam smiled, "Lead the way."

While walking down the hall toward the Council Chamber, people started turning towards them with puzzled looks, unsure if this man was really him. In front of the Council Chamber, the woman spoke quietly to another man who, after only a glance toward Liam, hastily entered the chamber. Moments later, two people were ushered outside and he was admitted.

Inside, nine people stood behind a semicircular table. The man in the middle rose, "Ancestor Liam, you have returned. It is an honor to finally meet you in person. I am Loran and I'm the presiding member of this council".

"Hello Loran… Council," Liam said while nodding to every member in the room, "it is an honor to meet you as well."

"Is it time?" Loren asked with excitement in his voice.

"It is Loran. The time to fulfill our destiny is upon us. Is everything in order?"

"It is Ancestor, we have worked very hard in your absence, and our race has flourished. The Order of The Guardians has grown considerably in that time and they have worked hard to prepare", Loran said with pride.

"I'm glad to hear that, we'll need it", Liam said, ending the sentence with a somewhat more serious tone.

Loran picked up immediately, "Did something change?"

"It has. I didn't predict some unfortunate developments, both in this galaxy and others. It appears several races are now capable of space travel in this galaxy. Although, this is not the concerning part per se, I believe that some of these races are very hostile and even xenophobic. One in particular is expanding its domain considerably, and it is very close to this region of space", Liam explained with some concern.

Loran was perplexed. He didn't know much about other races, or how to wage war against them for that matter, "Is there a chance we will have to relocate?"

"No. Too much has been invested here. Here is your home and it will stay that way. Besides, any race foolish enough to attack this planet will pay the ultimate price. My only concern is that this will set us back in the other two galaxies." Liam said, pausing for a moment, "Also, Atlantis has been taken by people from Terra."

"That is most unfortunate. I know the original plan was to inhabit Atlantis and make it our base of operation in the Pegasus galaxy. What are you planning to do?"

"Not much, except maybe helping them if we can. This is something we didn't predict, but it doesn't mean it is a bad thing. I believe we could even find an ally in the people of Terra, something that can actually work in our favor."

"What is our next move", one of the members asked.

"As we speak, three cruisers are under construction. They will be ready in less than a week. They will be dispatched to the appropriate galaxies and their first task will be to gather intelligence", Liam didn't like the fact that his first ships would be mere cruisers, but he knew that waiting for larger ships to be built wasn't an option. He needed to grow in numbers, and fast. Although these cruisers were marvels of technology and they had quite the punch, he knew that facing the Wraith and their hive ships with them would be suicide. At least, it was better than the _love boats_ the Lanteans used in their war. How did they plan to win the war with those ships was beyond his understanding. Having a warship with only drones as a weapon was shortsighted to say the least. Sure, the drones were powerful, but you had only a limited number of them on your ship and, after you used them all, your warships were useless. To make the fact even worse, drones were a bitch to produce. The production process was very energy consuming and they needed some of the rarest materials in the universe to work. As it turns out, a drone was more expensive than a Wraith dart you would shoot down. It looked like the people of Terra were more prepared for war than the Lanteans had ever been. The Tau'ri, as most people in the Milky Way called them these days, had designed a very good ship. They had different weapons on-board and even had real fighters, as opposed to the Lantean use of gateships that were great for everything except for war.

"We will also build two outposts, one in the Milky Way and one in the Pegasus galaxy. They will be set on planets that don't have gates so that nobody knows about their location. I will provide two new gates that will be placed there, and only those gates will be able to connect to our base of operation here in the Andromeda galaxy. The outposts will have some defenses, but our most effective defense will still be anonymity. Furthermore, every outpost will have a few recon teams stationed there. For now it will have to suffice."

Loran simply nodded, "Very well, I'll contact the Fleet Commander and the Commander of the ground forces. They are very capable people and they will provide the appropriate personnel and troops."

As the conversation continued and things got set in motion, Liam switched the conversation asking about their society. He saw how proud Loran was while talking about their accomplishments during his absence. In that time, the Edenian population had grown more than five times, even with the time dilation field slowing down time considerably, and now the Edenian society numbered in almost fifty millions. They made quite some advancement as well. Since the Edenians weren't here just to provide people for the war to come, Liam had decided not to give them too much knowledge, so that they could discover things by themselves. The only people that would participate in the incoming conflicts were the members of the Guardian Order. These people have trained for the last hundred years in order to prepare and they now numbered five hundred thousand, although most of them were only reserves that lived normal lives, and would be called only if needed. As of now, only ten percent were active and most of them were Fleet and Fleet Intelligence officers. Liam thought that ground forces would be needed, but not in great number and especially not in the beginning.

Eventually, the meeting ended and Liam beamed back to his ship. There was much to be done and time knows only one direction.

Only days after their meeting, two old transport ships already in Liam's possession departed for their respective galaxies in order to build the outposts. Liam soon found another Edenian trait. They were incredibly stubborn. He tried to tell them that only the Guardian Order was to be involved, but the Edenians didn't want to hear any of it. They decided that they would provide the people needed to build the outposts and some would even stay and make sure the outpost was runing smoothly. Liam was glad. He always liked more having people who wanted to help even if that meant defying his wishes than puppets who would do everything he says.

* * *

**Earth - SGC**

General O'Neill was working at his desk in his much-hated office when Walter stormed in.

"General, we've received a message from deep space. It's addressed to you," Walter said giving a piece of paper to Jack.

Jack looked at the paper and read, "SHE IS DECEIVING YOU. SHE IS TRYING TO FIND OUT HOW THE WEAPON WORKS. KILL HER!"

Jack jumped out of his chair and ran to the gate room. "Dial the Alpha site!"

* * *

**Alpha Site**

At the Alpha site, the wormhole connected and Teal'c, who was in the lab with Carter and repli-Carter, started receiving a message through his earpiece. He immediately raised his weapon.

Replicarter understood what was about to happen, but the only thing she managed to say before Teal'c fired was, "Fuck!"

On the other hand, Sam didn't know what just happened, "TEAL'C, WHAT THE FUCK!"

"ColonelCarter, I received an order from General O'Neill to shoot her immediately", Teal'c replied in his calm and composed way.

Sam gave him a death glare before storming out of the lab.

* * *

**Earth-SGC**

Jack was sitting behind his desk waiting. He knew she was coming, and he knew it wouldn't be pleasant. He thought about putting the base on lockdown for the next few hours so that nobody could gate in or out, but he knew he couldn't do that. He also knew it would take more than a few hours for her to calm down, if at all possible. As on cue, she stormed into his office, closing the door behind her.

'_Oh boy, she's pissed,'_ Jack stated to himself.

She was furious, "Sir, why did you give the order to shoot her."

"Carter, calm down," Jack said, also knowing she wouldn't calm down. He took the piece of paper with the note and gave it to her. He waited for a moment, letting her read it, "We'd received this message just moments before I contacted the Alpha site and gave the order to shoot her."

"Who sent this message, sir?"

"Don't know, but it came at the right time. If she was able to adapt to the weapon, we'd be in deep shit, and I can tell you right now, Thor wouldn't be very pleased."

"But sir, if we don't know who sent this message, it could very well had come from Fifth."

It was possible, but Jack was sure this wasn't the case, "I thought about that, and I'm not so convinced. I don't think Fifth would send us a message that says 'kill her'."

Sam still wasn't convinced. She still believed her double was telling the truth, but seconds later Walter entered Jack's office with new information, "Sir, we just received word from the Alpha site. Fifth has attacked the planet and he was destroyed by the satellite in orbit."

Thank you Walter, that's good news. You may go," Jack replied with a smile on his face.

Sam on the other hand was shocked, because that meant… "THAT BITCH!"

On the other side of the table, Jack was so happy he could bounce up and down for the next ten minutes. Not only the last two humanoid Replicators were dead but he was also right and she was wrong, at least this time.

"I'm sorry sir, I really thought she was telling the truth," Sam said with an apologizing expression.

"Not your fault Carter. It's difficult to believe that the other you is lying _to_ you. It's almost like... lying to yourself."

'_Did that make any sense?'_ Jack thought, not being sure. "Anyways, I think that in the end all went well for a change. I think some celebration is in order, don't you think." '_Anything to get me out of this office.'_

"Yes sir", Sam replied with a little more spirit.

"Great, let's find the others," Jack said while getting up.

"Sir, there is still one problem," Sam said with a puzzled look.

"What's that?"

"Who sent us the message?"

Jack thought about it for a moment, "Oh, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Somehow, I think we will find out soon enough."

They both got out of his office in search for Daniel and Teal'c.

* * *

**Pegasus Outpost**

Liam walked through the Stargate and found himself in a control room, similar to the one on Atlantis. This one didn't have the upper floor with all the consoles positioned there. Instead, everything was placed on the same level and the room in general felt somewhat smaller. Behind the consoles, the Fleet Commander of Pegasus Operations (FCPO) was waiting Liam's arrival.

"Commander Soren, what is so urgent?" Liam asked without any small talk since Soren had urgently asked him to come.

Soren bowed slightly before answering, "Ancestor Liam, there's a development on Atlantis that is of some concern.

"What kind of concern?"

"A massive storm is approaching Atlantis. Atlantis won't be able to withstand the storm's strength without the shield and currently they don't have the necessary power requirements to raise it. They think they can harvest the energy of the storm and raise the shield that way, but..."

Liam thought about it for a moment. This _was _a problem, and a big one. Their plan could succeed, but it was a long shot at best. It was also too soon to make their appearance, but something had to be done since leaving Atlantis to be destroyed wasn't an option.

"Alright, here is what we'll do. Redirect our ship to the nearest planet with a Stargate. I'll make a small energy device and charge it with enough energy to raise the shield for a short period, enough to last through the storm. Once the device is on board the ship, they are to proceed to Atlantis and, while cloaked, insert a team that will go to the power room and activate the device if the Tau'ri plan fails. With some luck, they won't know what happened and if they manage to do it on their own, even better," Liam knew there was a chance his team would be discovered, but he didn't have any alternative and, as he said, leaving Atlantis to fall wasn't an option.

"I'll get right on it," Soren replied and turned towards the comm. operator. "Contact our ship with orders to head for the nearest planet with a Stargate."

Liam rushed out of the gate room directed toward the small lab the outpost had. He had a lot of work to do and little time to do it.

As planned, an hour later the device was picked up by the cruiser and the ship immediately entered hyperspace, en route toward Atlantis.

* * *

**Atlantis**

After an hour of travel, the ship exited hyperspace inside Lantea's system and cloaked immediately. A puddle jumper with the four members of Pegasus Recon One (PR-1) was ready to take off in the main hangar. After cloaking, it departed the hangar bay, descending into the atmosphere and heading straight for Atlantis. After fifteen minutes, it reached Atlantis and landed near the central tower.

Inside the jumper, the four members made the last preparations. They were all wearing some kind of light black armor that wasn't blocking their motion but still capable of providing more than adequate protection for their torso and shoulders. It also had a wristband on their left hand and dark sunglasses on their eyes. The wristband contained technology that allowed them to cloak or raise a personal shield for a limited time. It also had sensors that would scan the surrounding area and relay that information to their glasses. The glasses also had the ability to switch from normal vision to night vision or infrared and through them, the user could still see his team members even when they were cloaked. They all carried some kind of energy rifle, a pistol and a knife on their right thigh.

Aaron, the captain of the team, just finished checking his gear. "Alright, is everybody ready?"

Garen looked at the captain with a smirk on his face. "Always boss."

Receiving their confirmation he continued, "All of you should already know what our mission is, but for those who didn't pay enough attention I'll say it one more time. Our mission is to reach the power room in the central tower without being detected. As far as we know, there are only a few people in the entire city, so this shouldn't be a problem, but because the city has sensors we will have to go cloaked and remain that way the whole time. Once we reach the power room, Marin will disable the internal sensors there, so we can de-cloak again without being noticed. We will have to be quick. Our cloaking system will last for only half an hour. Once we are in the power room, we will wait there until it's time to activate the device and only if needed. I want this mission to go smoothly, just as the last time we were here. Let's go."

Indeed, this wasn't the first mission the team have had in Atlantis. Less than a month ago, they had to plant several listening devices around the city. This is how they knew the storm was coming and what the Tau'ri had planned to save the city.

While the team was making its way to the power room, things in the control room just went completely FUBAR. The Genii managed to gain access to Atlantis through the gate while disguised as Athosian refugees. They were able to kill the only two guards that remained in the city before they could react.

Meanwhile, Rodney and Weir were returning from their task of disabling the grounding stations when they heard over their radios what was happening in the control room. Instead of running the other way or at least take some guns, they decided to storm the gate-room unarmed. Once they reached the control room, Weir just asked angrily the Genii what was going on. Not the smartest thing to do when you're facing armed soldiers. Of course, their action didn't go unpunished and they were immediately taken as hostages. What they thought they would accomplish was beyond understanding.

At least one man knew what needed to be done so the first thing Sheppard did was to run to the nearest weapon's locker. The Genii wanted the C4 so that's what they wouldn't get. Sheppard took some weapons and hid all the C4 so they couldn't find it.

The Genii weren't happy to say the least. Things were not going according to plan, especially when an ambush that was supposed to capture Sheppard ended up with two of their men killed, which made Kolya really pissed. He didn't know how much more pissed he would get until the day was over.

The four men waited patiently in the power room oblivious of what was happening in the city until the captain's earpiece clicked. "_Captain Aaron, there's something you should be made aware of. The city has been attacked by some humans that call themselves the Genii. Atlantis is currently under their control._"

'_Shit! Why things can't ever go according to plan,' _Aaron thought. "What are our orders?"

"_Your primary objective stays the same. The shield is the most important thing right now. Your secondary objective is to lay a hand to get rid of the 'infestation' if you can, but in no circumstances you are to be discovered or leave evidence of your involvement. One of their people disabled the power, so you don't have to worry about the sensors anymore."_

"Acknowledged, Aaron out." Turning to his team he continued, "All right, you heard what the man said. You two will stay here and watch the room, while Garen and I will see if we can take out a few of these Genii."

Garen was a little concerned, "Boss, how are we going to do that without leaving evidence? Our energy rifles are a dead giveaway."

Aaron already had an idea, "We'll leave our weapons here. I saw an armory with Tau'ri weapons while we were coming. We will take a few of theirs. I don't think they would mind."

Garen nodded and both of them took off. They found the armory only ten minutes later and took two P90s. They spent a few minutes figuring out how they worked before heading out in search for the Genii. It didn't take long for their sensors to pick up two life signs, only a hundred meters down their path. They both cloaked and proceeded further until they reached the two unfortunate Genii who didn't know what was coming. Aaron motioned to Garen to take the left one while he would target the right one.

"Now," Aaron whispered.

At the same time, both of them shot a single bullet and the Genii, only twenty feet away, just dropped dead.

Aaron looked at his weapon," Impressively accurate weapon." The bullets hit dead center where they were aiming.

Garen grinned, "Yeah boss, these things are not bad at all. Let's find some more Genii."

Aaron simply nodded and they continued their search. In the next half an hour, they manage to take down three more enemy soldiers.

Aaron looked at his wristband, "The storm will be here soon, and we don't want to be in the hallways when they start purring all that power through them." They turned and headed back to the power room.

In the meantime, Rodney and Weir were working on the main console trying to activate the shield. It wasn't working and as a result, Kolya was furious. He had lost contact with all his men except for the two remaining soldiers in the control room. He didn't even have enough people to take all the stuff they'd stolen through the gate.

'_How the hell did Sheppard managed to kill so many soldiers.'_ He thought, not having the right answer to that. And now, their scientist was telling him their plan wasn't working and Atlantis was going to fall in a matter of minutes. He had to get out of here.

He turned to his men, "We are leaving. Take whatever you can." Turning toward Weir he continued, "You two are coming with us. You will pay for what you did."

Weir was furious, "What WE did!"

The genii scientist and Kolya pointed their guns at them and forced them to follow. Before they reached the gate, John and Ford made their appearance guns blazing. Rodney immediately understood the situation and, with the speed only a frightened scientist can achieve, he ran out of the way. The Genii scientist did the same and seconds later, he was through the gate. Weir wasn't so fortunate. Kolya had a tight grip on her and he was using her as a shield, but he didn't know that John was good enough, or crazy enough, to shoot anyway. The bullet hit Kolya in his left shoulder making him lose the hold he had on Weir and fall through the event horizon.

Weir had fear plastered all over her face. She didn't know if John was THAT good, or if it was sheer luck she didn't end up with a hole in her head. With haste, they all reached the control station and Rodney began working on powering the shield. Once Teyla and Carson reached the control room, they activated the shield just before a massive wave of water hit the city.

Aaron was cursing silently. "Why the hell did they wait until the last minute to activate the shield?"

Marin looked at his wristband taking some reading, "I don't know sir, but they waited for too long."

"How do you mean _too _long?"

"The shield generators didn't receive nearly enough energy, and now that the shield is raised the lightning can't hit the rods anymore."

"All right, activate the device so that it looks like the energy in the shield generators is lasting longer. With some luck they won't know anyone helped them".

They activated the device and the energy reserves started falling much more slowly. The storm lasted for ten more minutes and after that, the shield dropped. Aaron and the rest of his team picked up their things and left. No one saw them and no one knew they were there.

Things began to get back to normal in Atlantis. Weir and John were just looking from the balcony the last group of people gating back.

Weir was pensive, "John, we came too close to losing Atlantis."

John shrugged, "I know. Hopefully it won't happen again."

Weir wasn't satisfied, "I'm not so sure. We were too reckless. We gave the IDC codes to so many people without thinking that somebody could steal them."

"Maybe you are right."

Weir changed her gaze to a mischievous one, "Thank God we had a terminator on Atlantis at the time."

John wasn't too pleased to be called a terminator, "Hey! It's not my fault that the Genii kept coming at me."

"I can't wait to read your report and see how you managed to kill ten people."

John looked at her with a puzzled expression, "You mean five people?"

"No John, I mean ten people."

John didn't know if she was trying to have some fun at his expense or what, "I don't remember any other five."

Weir was now frustrated, "What do you mean you don't remember? How can you not remember killing five people?"

'_What was going on here?' _John thought. "I'm telling you, I took out five soldiers and that's it! Maybe Teyla and Ford had something to do with it."

Now Weir really didn't know what was going on. She knew Teyla and Ford didn't do it. "I've read their reports and they only mentioned stunning the two Genii that were threatening _you."_

Weir and John were now looking at each other, nobody knowing what to say when they heard an irritated Rodney. "Hah, it shouldn't have worked."

Weir turned to Rodney who was working on the control station nearby. "What shouldn't have worked?"

Rodney was still looking at the display, "The shield. It should have dropped much sooner than it did."

John stated the obvious, "But it _did_ work!"

Rodney was already entering his babbling speech mode, "I know it worked, but it shouldn't have! Look," Rodney motioned the two of them to look at the display. "This power spike is when we charged the shield. You see how it starts falling down immediately after we raised the shield?"

Both Weir and John replied at the same time, "Yes Rodney, what's your point?"

"You see here how it slows down. It shouldn't have happened."

John thought about it for a moment, "Maybe a lightning stroke the rods again and charged the shield generators."

Rodney was looking at John as if he was some kid speaking nonsense. "Once the shield is raised, it's impossible for the lightning to go through."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course I'm sure."

In the meantime, Weir was silently thinking about the entire situation. If what they were saying was true then… "So, you Rodney are saying that there is no way we could have had enough energy for the shield, and you John are saying that you didn't kill ten people, but only five."

Suddenly the implication of what Weir just said donned on Rodney and John's face. Somebody else must have done it.

John was first to ask, "Who?"

Rodney followed, "How?"

Weir was troubled. They needed some answers. "I don't know, but let's try to find out. Rodney, work on this and try to find what exactly happened. John, we are going to see Carson and the dead Genii soldiers to see how they died. We will reconvene in an hour in the conference room."

They both nodded. Rodney began checking and rechecking all the data he had, and John and Weir went to see Carson. An hour later, they were all in the conference room.

Weir began, "Okay Carson, what have you found from the autopsy of the ten soldiers?"

"Well, all ten soldiers were killed by 5.56 bullets from our P90s, but there is a difference between the five soldiers John killed and the other five we found near the armory. While those killed by John had multiple wounds consistent with rapid weapon's fire, the other five were killed with a single headshot. What is even stranger is that the shooter, or shooters, must have been very close, only 20 feet from their victims."

John was puzzled for several reasons, "How do you know they were so close?"

Carson smiled, "It's because Atlantis has some remarkable scanners that can measure the amount of gunpowder on the victim with incredible accuracy."

"So, somebody stood 20 feet in front of them and shot them in the head, and they didn't even flinch? To do that somebody must be incredibly fast or incredibly invisible," John opined as much to himself as to the others. Then he continued, "Oh, by the way, two P90 are missing from the armory."

"That doesn't mean anything. Maybe the Genii took them," Weir replied.

John didn't believe it to be true. "I don't think so. For one, the Genii weren't interested in our rifles, they wanted the C4 and second, if they wanted our rifles they'd have taken more than just two."

Weir frowned. He was right. "Rodney, did you find anything on your end?"

Rodney nodded, "Actually I have. From the power logs, I managed to pinpoint the location where a power source must have been connected. It was in the ZPM room. I checked the ZPMs and they are depleted as they were before, so whoever helped us must have used an alternative power source. I also found out that the internal sensors in the ZPM room had been disabled. They must have tried to reconnect them back, but they were damaged in the process."

Weir was pissed, "Great! Somebody, who clearly knows a lot about ancient technology has managed to get access to the city without us even realizing it. Do we at least know if they are still here?"

Rodney was the one to answer. "No they aren't. We checked with the sensors and only our people are in the city."

John wasn't so sure, "How do you know? If they managed to disable the sensors once, they can do it again."

"No, that's not possible. Look, the city sensors can scan the entire city without the need for internal sensors. Only a few rooms that are shielded need internal sensor. Only the control room, ZPM room and a few others are shielded because you don't want those rooms to be susceptible to different forms of radiation.", Rodney replied.

John was worried. They'd all forgotten one very important thing, "You are all forgetting something. Like the method they used to get on-board Atlantis." Seeing that nobody understood, "They didn't use the Stargate;_ that_ we know for certain."

Rodney understood and finished John's thought, "They were here by ship!"

"Bingo!" John exclaimed.

Teyla didn't know what 'bingo' meant, but the thought that somebody that is not the Wraith can travel through space was unheard of, "I do not know of any space fairing race in the Pegasus galaxy that has spaceships, especially with the Wraith present. They would have never allowed it."

"Still the evidence suggests otherwise. Let's hope they are friendly," Weir replied.

"It seems that way. If they wanted to harm us, or even take the city, they had ample opportunity to do it," John said.

"Alright, enough about this, we won't find out anything else anyway. What are we going to do with the Genii? If they are bold enough to attack us here, our teams are even more exposed out there, and I for one don't think the Genii will forgive and forget the seventy man John single-handedly killed." Weir knew John only did what it had to be done, but she also liked to tease him a little.

John didn't like Elizabeth to remind him how many people he killed, but her concern was valid. "We will have to be very careful from now on when we go out there. I also think that we should send a _message_ to the Manarians. After all, they were the one who rat us out to the Genii."

Weir was concerned, "John, we are not going to attack the Manarians."

John was deeply hurt, "Give me some credit, would ya. Contrary to recent evidence, I'm not the Terminator you think I am."

They all chuckled except for Teyla who didn't know what a Terminator was.

John was now even angrier, "_Anyway_, I only meant that we should pay them a visit with a few teams and tell them how displeased we are with them and that next time we won't be so forgiving. We can also _politely_ ask them to give us any information they have on the Genii and that _that_ would go a long way for us to forgive them for what they've done. "

Weir thought about it and even though she liked more solving problems through diplomacy, she was also pissed and she didn't want something like this to happen again, "I'm inclined to agree. A little intimidation can go a long way in preventing something like this from happening again, but we will discuss the details later. I think we all have a lot of work to do so, if no one has anything to add, we can end this meeting."

Since no one had, the meeting ended and everyone went their separate ways.

Teyla rushed to catch up with John, "John, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"What _is_ a Terminator… or bingo for that matter?" Teyla asked with a puzzled look on her face.

John smiled, "Let's go grab something to eat and I'll explain."

Teyla nodded and they both went to the mess hall.

* * *

**Pegasus Outpost**

Liam and Soren waited the return of Aaron's team to congratulate them for a job well done. The Tau'ri had found out that somebody helped them, but fortunately, they didn't know who they were.

Aaron's team walked through the gate and they immediately greeted both of them.

Soren was first to congratulate. "Captain Aaron, welcome back and congratulations on your success."

"Thank you sir, I apologize we weren't able to cover our tracks better," Aaron replied apologetically.

Liam didn't want to hear that nonsense, "No need to apologize Captain. The important thing is that Atlantis is safe, and I don't think there was something more you could have done anyway."

Aaron replied with a smile. "Thank you sir, we appreciate it."

Soren continued the discussion, "So captain, what do you think of these Genii?"

"Not much Commander. Our encounters with them were … very brief, but they are definitely the military type and from what I've seen there, not very friendly."

Liam was pensive. He didn't need another enemy, no matter who they were. He turned to Soren. "Do you think they will make things more difficult for us, or Atlantis for that matter?"

Soren believed it to be true, "Our intelligence on them is sketchy at best, but from what we have I'm sure they will further their own agenda with disregard for others. They were already on a warpath with the Tau'ri and after what happened in Atlantis, I don't think that will change."

Liam had to agree with the Commander's assessment, "Well, there isn't much we can do for now except to gather as much information on them as possible. Tell Fleet Intelligence to find as much as they can about them, what assets they have, how many there are and on which planets they are located, but also tell them to be discreet. Things are moving too fast and we are still not ready."

Liam continued, "Gentlemen, I need to go back to the Andromeda galaxy. There is some development regarding the alien race near our borders that needs to be addressed."

Soren didn't know much about what was happening in the Andromeda galaxy these days, it wasn't his job, but he was still preoccupied. After all, their home was there. "Is there something to be concerned?"

"No, no, nothing to worry about. I'll try to make first contact with them and see where it leads us."

"Well, good luck. Let's hope they are open to discussion."

"Thank you, my hope as well."

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy**

Liam ended the conversation and gated to his station in the Andromeda galaxy floating in space, still hidden by the nebula surrounding her. The station wasn't empty anymore. There were people buzzing around and operating the various consoles. He spoke briefly with one of the technicians before beaming to his ship.

His ship on the other hand _was_ empty. His personal ship was built a very long time ago, even before the Edenian race existed. Because of it, he had to build the ship to be self-sufficient so the only thing that operated the ship was a VI (Virtual Intelligence). The VI was a marvel of technology. It was made of an AI core in conjunction with a copy of Liam's consciousness, not very different from what the Asgard used to do on a few occasions. It was strange for Liam to practically talk to himself, but the benefits outweighed the awkwardness. He didn't know how to call it either, so he decided to simply call it VI, "VI, is everything ready?"

A holographic representation of Liam appeared on the bridge. The only difference was that it wore black robes instead of the white ones Liam preferred. "It is. If we want to reach the opposite side of their territory first, the journey will last twenty minutes."

Liam didn't want the Senari, as the aliens called themselves, to know from where his ship was coming, so he decided he would travel far from Eden Prime and meet them there. Liam simply nodded and the VI knew what to do. A hyperspace window opened and the ship sped inside.

As predicted, the journey lasted twenty minutes. Upon exit, Liam instructed the VI to raise the shield, but not to power the weapons. This wasn't _that_ kind of mission, no matter the outcome.

Not far away, a ship stood motionless. From the ship's size, Liam thought it was some kind of heavy cruiser, approximately five hundred meters in length. The scan showed it had several weapons arrays, a clear indication of his main purpose. It didn't take long for the ship to notice the new ship in their vicinity, immediately turning towards them and powering there engines on an intercept course.

"Send our standard first contact message on all channels. Let see how they respond."

They didn't. Instead, they powered their weapons and once they entered weapons range, they fired some green energy bolts at Liam's ship.

Liam stood up from the control chair, "Status of our shields?"

The VI mentally checked the pertinent data, "The shields remain at hundred percent efficiency. They do not possess the required energy output or weapons technology to bypass our shields."

'_No wonder there,' _Liam thought to himself. His shields were a slight variation of the one Atlantis had, the strongest shields the Alterran had ever built. It was slightly different because the shield built for Atlantis had a small problem which made it useless aboard ships. The shield on Atlantis was so strong that it didn't only stop all types of weapons directed at it, but it also stopped all types of weapons fired from inside it as well. The exception was the drones, as the only type of weapon that could be used in conjunction with that type of shield. Liam didn't want to build a ship that can only use drones, so he had to compromise by not using the same shield as Atlantis. Coupled with three ZPMs on board his ship, the enemy had no chance in hell of overpowering the shield.

'_They have guts. I give them that. Or is it insanity?'_ Liam didn't know, but for them to fire on a ship more than six times their length and with more advanced technology, wasn't a very smart move. "Alright, let's wait and see what happens. Make our message repeat on a loop. Maybe we can bore them to death."

It was sad to watch for how long the enemy ship fired at them with no result. They finally stopped firing, but to Liam's disappointment, they still didn't initiate contact.

'_What the fuck. Is it so difficult to just say hello?' _Liam thought angrily. One thing was to shoot first and ask questions later, he saw that kind of attitude many times, but to not even answer, THAT WAS JUST RUDE!

'_One shot, I just need one shot from the main cannon to send them all to the afterlife. No, no, I need to calm down. They are not a threat to me and shooting them, it wouldn't solve anything. Except maybe for my mood. Don't think like that, you are above this.'_

The VI snapped Liam from his impure thoughts, "You too, ha."

Liam nodded, "Yeah! I don't know if a can take this anymore."

"Hey, what do you think how I feel? They are shooting at me! The greatest warship ever built" the VI answered proudly.

Liam sighed, "Alright, let's leave before we _both_ lose our patience. It's apparent we won't achieve anything here."

The ship turned on his axis by almost hundred and eighty degrees with tremendous speed as to show how angry it was. It opened a hyperspace window and sped through it with the same haste.

Liam needed some distraction so he turned to the one thing it relaxed him the most, designing ships. He liked to think of various ships he would build with the help of the VI, something he was very good at. Sometimes, they would argue for hours on the type of ships they'd build and how to best utilize the resources at their disposal. One of these discussions led to the conclusion that they needed to build at least two more shipyards, one in the Pegasus and one in the MW galaxy. The reason was simple. He wanted to build smaller ships, some even less than hundred meters in length. Some would be recon ships and others would serve as fast response warships. The problem was that the almost four hundred meter long cruisers he already had were the smallest ships that could house an intergalactic hyperdrive. If he'd build ships without the IG drive in the Andromeda galaxy, there was no way to send them to other galaxies unless he built large carrier ships and that was something he wasn't prepared to do. Hence, he decided the best option at his disposal was to build two additional shipyards in the other two galaxies. He'd already sent the two builders he had, two massive ships capable of building almost anything. They would soon reach their destination, two uninhabited systems where they can start building the much smaller shipyards and other facilities that will serve to refine the needed materials.

The first ship that the new shipyards would build was a corvette type, only sixty meters in length, designed for recon and Intelligence gathering missions. These corvettes would still have a fast hyperdrive, but it would lack the endurance needed to cross the void between galaxies. There were two other advantages in building smaller ship. They were cheaper, faster to build, and they needed less people to operate. It was shortsighted at best to tie down larger ships for some intelligence-gathering mission, making two hundred or more people just wait and do nothing for several days at a time while they monitored some godforsaken planet. Instead, the corvettes would need only a dozen or so people to operate properly.

The second type of ship would be a destroyer, approximately two hundred and fifty meters in length. Without the IG drive and the hangar bays for fighters and puddle jumpers, the ship would have extra room to house a larger than usual reactor and more weapons. This was going to make the destroyer almost as strong as a cruiser even though it was much smaller. The only negative side was that those shipyards wouldn't be able to build larger ships. Cruisers, battleships, and maybe _someday_ dreadnoughts, could be built only at the two main shipyards he had in the Andromeda galaxy. He wanted to build at least one more capital shipyard, but he only had two builders at his disposal, so it would have to wait.

He sighed, knowing that time really wasn't on his side. The Wraith were already culling world after world and he knew that, at the moment, he didn't have the strength to oppose them. Similarly, in the Milky Way galaxy, the Goa'uld had hundreds of ships at their disposal, and he had, well, one ship there. And to make things even worse, it was a mere cruiser. He thought about an alternative way to fight the Goa'uld, a way that didn't involve the standard brute force approach and thought that the Jaffa's rebellion to be the most promising candidate. Their rebellion was growing in strength, but it was a painfully slow progress. He had to think of a way to help them. This was the Goa'uld greatest weakness, as a direct result of their arrogance. In the end, their dependence on the Jaffa to fight for them will prove to be their undoing.

Liam closed the holographic design of the corvette, and walked to his room to take some much-deserved rest. He hadn't slept in almost two days.

* * *

**Milky Way Outpost**

The outpost was placed on a very inhospitable planet. The level of humidity was so high that you actually thought it was always raining, something only insects liked and, as a result, the planet was full of them. The outpost was placed somewhere near the South Pole where the climate was somewhat better. Not that it really mattered, the outpost was underground for obvious reasons and had his own environmental system, but people still liked to go outside from time to time. It wasn't healthy to be underground for too long. It was too depressing.

In the last two months, the outpost had grown considerably, now capable of housing thousands of people with a small manufacturing facility and medical bay, fully functional. One day, the fleet and the number of recon teams were going to grow larger and when that happened, the outpost needed to be able of supporting them.

The last few months were mostly uneventful, but now Liam was waiting impatiently for Recon-One (R-1) to return from their mission. He didn't have to wait for long before the gate started to spin and only seconds later R-1 stepped through. Liam walked to greet them, "R-1, welcome home. How was your mission?"

Maras, the Captain, replied. "The mission was a success sir…most of it at least."

Liam raised an eyebrow almost like Teal'c would, "How do you mean?"

Maras looked at his team and sighed before telling the story.

* * *

**Unknown planet - Two hours earlier…**

On the planet's surface the Stargate was guarded by half a dozen Jaffa with the symbol on their forehead clearly indicating they belonged to Ba'al. The six guards suddenly turned and raised their weapons when the Stargate started to spin. They watched as the seven chevrons locked and the wormhole formed, but to their confusion, nothing came through or at least that's what they thought. Only one of them noticed a slight disturbance in the event horizon, but it was already too late. R-1 had been already through the gate and in mere seconds the six Jaffa were shot without even realizing what was happening. After checking their sensors and making sure they were alone, they de-cloaked. Having a cloaking device was really helpful.

Maras, the team's leader, was the first to speak, "Ok, let's proceed with our mission as fast as we can. The longer we stay here, greater the chances of being discovered."

R-1 started the long trek towards their target. They couldn't use their cloak because they needed it later, and the built-in energy capacitor could last for only half an hour. Still, they had sensors that would tell them if there were patrols in a thousand feet radius, which made evading them that much easier.

Ba'al had become too strong for the System Lords to provide an adequate resistance, so Liam and the Commander of Milky Way operations decided that something had to be done. This planet had a manufacturing facility that was providing several key components in the construction of Baal's Ha'tak class vessels, yet the defenses on the planet were minimal. Ba'al believed that no one knew the location of this facility and, as a result, only a small garrison of Jaffa was stationed here. The destruction of this facility would delay the production of his ships for at least a month. Not much in the grand scheme of things, but it was better than doing nothing.

The team had managed to evade two patrols before reaching the complex where two guards were guarding the main entrance. They had to take them down in order to gain access and they had to do it quietly. R-1 cloaked once more and slowly approached the two guards unaware of what was coming. Maras and Mekai walked behind the two guards while Anya and Erin kept their rifles pointed at the guards in case something went wrong. Maras and Mekai grabbed both guards at the same time, snapping their necks from behind. Without a word, they hid the two bodies. It was better if someone noticed two guards missing than finding two bodies lying on the ground.

A couple of days before the mission, the cruiser passed through the system and scanned the entire facility. That way, the team knew the exact spots where to plant the explosives that would do the most damage. They had to plant their bombs in three places. The first two went without a hitch, the last one, not so much. Their cloak didn't work anymore and one Jaffa ended up walking straight where they were trying to place the last explosive. The Jaffa wasn't very alert and it took him almost an eternity to point his gun. Anya and Erin, who were guarding the corridor, shot the Jaffa with short bursts from their weapons. The Jaffa dropped dead to the floor. They feared someone could have heard the shots, deciding to come and check, so they decided to leave as fast as possible. Fortunately, they were not far from the entrance point because, the moment they stepped outside, an alarm blared throughout the entire complex. They ran toward the woods with two dozen Jaffa exiting the complex in pursuit.

The fifteen minute run toward the gate was exhausting, but they wanted to make some space between them and the chasing party. When they reached the gate, they saw the wormhole was already opened and to their left, there was a strange vehicle on six wheels. The moment they reached the front of the gate, three people came through. The two teams looked at each other for a long time, both parties measuring the others not knowing what to say or do.

'_Oh goody, just what we need.'_ Maras thought to himself.

Daniel thought they looked just like any SG team if it wasn't for the slightly different vests they were wearing and the different type of weapons. He had to break the silence before someone decided to raise his weapon, "Hello, who are you?"

Maras looked at Erin and gave him a small nod that made Erin move in front of the DHD and start dialing. Maras looked back at Daniel who was waiting for an answer, "I'm sorry, but we'll have to postpone our introductions for another time. You see, a few dozen angry Jaffa are coming this way and they are only a few minutes behind us. I suggest you gate back home as well or at least hide before they get here."

Two things happened next, a large explosion in the distance and the gate opening a wormhole. While the SG-1 was looking at the distant smoke, three of the four members of R-1 had already gone through the gate. Maras turned to the puzzled members of SG-1 and with a smile he continued, "Colonel Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson and Teal'c. I hope we'll see each other one day and have a little more time, but until then I can only say that it's been a pleasure meeting you."

Maras stepped through the gate and the connection closed. Carter just watched the gate, trying to understand what just happened while Teal'c had his eyebrow raised.

"They know who we are, but we have no clue who they are and I don't like it one bit," Carter said.

"Indeed."

Daniel thought he needed to mention something, "So, two dozen angry Jaffa are coming here, hah."

It took a few seconds, but eventually Carter understood what Daniel meant, "Daniel, dial the gate. Teal'c, help me with the MALP." She didn't want to explain to Jack why they'd lost yet another MALP. The IOA performed an extensive research of all SGC expenses. One report showed that SG-1 had the highest rate of MALPs lost. The IOA didn't care that this was because SG-1 was getting the most dangerous missions.

They'd managed to gate through just before the Jaffa reached the opening where the gate was.

* * *

**Earth - SGC**

Inside the gate room, Jack was already waiting, wanting to know why they were back so soon, "Hello kids, home so soon?"

Carter reached the bottom of the ramp before replying, "Yes sir, something… strange happened sir."

"Strange? What do you mean by strange?" Jack was puzzled.

Carter didn't know how to begin, "To tell you the trough sir, I'm not sure exactly what happened. When we gated to the other side, we bumped into a four men team that was about to leave the planet. I have no idea who they were, but they knew exactly who we are."

O'Neil didn't follow, "Wait, wait, what team?"

Daniel was the one to reply, "They didn't say, they were in a hurry. From what we saw, they just blew up Baal's facility there on the planet. Some Jaffas were chasing them so they gated away, and we did the same immediately after. The strange thing is that if they weren't wearing dark clothing and different weapons, I would have thought they were one of our teams."

"Indeed O'Neill, there was great resemblance," Teal'c stated with a raised eyebrow.

O'Neil was thoughtful for a moment, "And they knew who you are?"

Carter nodded, "Yes, and by that, I mean us personally. They knew our names."

"Alright, go and get changed. We'll talk about this later." O'Neil didn't know what was going on, but it seemed there was another player on the galactic scene now. He wasn't sure but he believed this team was somehow connected to the messages they had received recently. It seemed to O'Neill they were on the same side, the recon mission on Baal's planet they had a few days ago was to be followed by the same type of mission those people just completed. No matter how it looked, these people are an unknown factor and he didn't like it. He decided he must eat something.

* * *

**Milky Way Outpost**

Liam listened to Maras' recollection of events that happened on their mission. He knew the Tau'ri would eventually connect the dots. The next time they would talk to the Asgard, they'd find out that somebody helped them as well, and once they establish contact with Atlantis, they'd know even more, but now wasn't the time to think about it. He had a task only he can complete, and if things would go as he'd planned, Atlantis would be able to connect to Earth once again.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy**

It was a beautiful day on the surface. The sun was high in the sky and the temperature was perfect. Not too cold not too hot, just like a typical spring day that made him want to find a tree and just lay there and relax, but he didn't have the time to do something like that. Instead, he entered the monastery that stood in front of him. After a few minutes of walking through the various halls, most of whom where in bad shape, he entered the central room where he found a woman working on some scrolls.

Liam approached the woman, "Hello Allina."

The woman was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't even notice someone entering the room. She looked at the man who looked strange to her. He was dressed in white robes she had never seen before. "Hello. Who are you?"

Seeing that she was somewhat cautious, Liam smiled. "My name is Liam and I'm Alterra."

Allina didn't know what 'Alterra' meant, "Alterra, what's that?"

"Alterra is the name of my race, the race that came here in the Pegasus galaxy more than five million years ago. I'm a member of the race that spread life in this galaxy on thousands of planets. I'm a member of the race you refer to as your Ancestors."

The woman was startled and she was clearly showing it. Eyes as large as planets, heart rate that threatened to become a heart attack and the loss of color on her face were dead giveaways. But there was something else as well, she was suspicious, "You are? And how do I know you are telling me the truth?"

Liam sighed. There was no test or proof that would prove to her he was what he said he was. "Please let's go for a walk, it is such a beautiful day outside."

Allina hesitated for a moment, but there was something trustworthy in this man and she decided to follow him outside. They walked in silence all the way through the monastery and they were almost a hundred feet in the open when Liam spoke again. "You asked me a question and I don't know how to answer it. I don't have anything that would prove to you that I am who I say I am."

She as well didn't know how somebody could prove something like that, "Then tell me, why are you here?"

Liam smiled, "You know why."

Realization crossed her face, "You want the potentia."

"No, not exactly. I want _you_ to give it to somebody else."

"Who?" She asked but realized the answer before Liam could answer. "The people that now inhabit the city of the ancestors. Why?"

"That's simple. Because they need it, the city needs it." Liam answered simply.

"But they are not our ancestors."

"That's true, but neither were the people that gave the brotherhood the potentia for safekeeping."

Allina was puzzled, "What do you mean?"

"Allina, the Alterran were your Ancestors. The race that gave this device to the brotherhood more than ten thousand years ago, were called Lanteans. They were more your siblings than your ancestors." Liam paused for a moment before continuing, "More than five hundred thousand years ago my race understood that our time here was coming to an end. More and more of my people were ascending to a higher plane of existence and a decision was made that someone else was to continue our work. So we took humans from one planet and advanced them as much as we could in the time that remained. The city of Atlantis was given to them so that they could help others in this galaxy. That is how the Lantean race was born, the one you call your Ancestors."

Allina stood there not knowing what to do or say.

Liam smiled, "You're still unsure I'm telling the truth."

"I don't know. I don't see why you would make up a story like the one you just told me, but on the other hand, I still don't have any proof that you are telling the truth."

"I understand." Liam thought about it for a moment to think of a way to gain her trust, "Would it help if I show you Atlantis?"

"I suppose, but how?"

Liam smiled at her before both of them were beamed to his ship. The moment they appeared, Liam noticed the frightened expression on her face. "Don't be alarmed, we are on my ship above your planet. We'll need it to reach Atlantis."

Seeing that her natural color started to return, Liam gave a mental command to the ship. The ship lurched forward and moments later a hyperspace window opened and they went through it. Allina was fascinated with what she was seeing outside the window. She had never witnessed anything so beautiful.

* * *

**Lantea's System**

The ship exited hyperspace and in front of them, a blue marble appeared. The planet grew larger and larger as they came closer, finally settling once they reached its orbit.

"Where are we?" Allina asked while looking at the planet below.

"This is Lantea, the planet where Atlantis resides."

Liam instructed the ship to magnify the image and Atlantis appeared in as much details as possible.

"This is Atlantis?" Allina asked while still looking at the display that she previously believed was a window.

"Yes, this is Atlantis, the city that was built more than five million years ago, and now her existence is threatened." Liam finished with a glint of sadness.

"What do you mean?"

"The Wraiths are coming, and without the potentia the city can't defend itself." He didn't want to tell her that even with the ZPM their chances of survival were small.

Allina watched the city float for a long time, "Alright, I'll give them the potentia."

Liam smiled, "Thank you Allina. There is something else I need to ask of you. I don't want you to mention me when you give them the potentia."

Allina had a questioning look, "Why?"

"I'm not ready yet to introduce myself to them, but I hope that, when the day comes, we will forge an alliance and together fight the Wraith until they are no more."

"You intend to fight the Wraith… and win? Is that even possible?"

"Everything is possible Allina. I know the people of this galaxy have lost hope that they could one day live free without fear of the Wraith, but I can promise you that, in one way or the other, that day will come."

For the first time Allina sensed hope, hope that was lost to the people in this galaxy a long time ago. The thing she didn't realize was what 'one way or the other' meant. Liam firmly believed that the Wraith had to be stopped at all cost and that, if no other methods were successful, he would use his last resort, a device that his people developed a long time ago. The weapon would kill the Wraith, but would also kill all humans in the Pegasus galaxy. He really didn't like that option. Even though he would first relocate as many people as possible to another galaxy, he knew that some would stay, unwilling to leave their homes. There were also too many planets to go through, and he didn't know, if it came to that, if he'd have enough time to save them all.

Liam sighed, thinking of the Lanteans and the great mistake they'd made. Of course, the Wraith didn't evolve naturally, they couldn't have. It's impossible for a race to evolve naturally if it can only feed on one other sentient race, and the Lanteans were to blame.

In all the good the Lantean had done, there was one thing that pushed them in the wrong direction. The Lantean wanted to imitate their parents. Nothing wrong with that, but they weren't patient enough. They tried to find a way to accelerate their evolution, and when they encountered the Iratus bug, they began to experiment with it. Their curiosity came from the fact that the bug apparently possessed telepathic abilities, something the Lanteans knew their predecessor possessed as well. The result was the creation of a retrovirus that would have given them those abilities, but what they hadn't understood was how aggressive the bug's DNA was and when they finally did, it was already too late. The entire lab, with all the Lanteans, was infected and they mutated practically overnight and the Wraith race was born. It isn't surprising that all Wraith based technology is biological in nature. The first Wraith were mostly doctors, biologists and geneticists that worked in the lab.

Liam and Allina talked some more about everything and nothing in particular. Of course, he didn't tell her how the Wraith came to be, there was no point in burdening her. Soon they departed for Degan where they said their farewells and Allina was beamed back to the planet while Liam went back to the outpost to continue his never-ending work.

* * *

**Atlantis - one day later.**

Hearing the familiar sound of the gate opening snapped Weir from her administrative work. She stormed outside her office, reaching the stairs leading to the gate when John, Rodney, Teyla and Ford stepped through the event horizon, "So John, what did they want?"

John was smiling from ear to ear, but that wasn't what made Elizabeth curious. Instead, it was Rodney's behavior. He looked like he was about to start drawling any moment now and for some reason he looked very protective of his backpack.

John was the first to speak, "Rodney, show her."

To John's dismay, nothing happened. He looked at the scientist and noticed his reluctance to even show it to anybody. John thought the only thing missing was for Rodney to start whispering _'my precious'_ right there in front of them. John looked at Weir with an apologizing expression, "He's been like that ever since we got it. Rodney! Don't make me use it!"

Rodney looked at John with fearful eyes. John slowly opened one of his pockets and slowly started to take out the yellow fruit.

"Alright, alright, no need for threats," Rodney exclaimed, while taking off his backpack and showing the content to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth looked at the content in disbelief, "They gave it to us?"

John nodded, "Yup. Apparently, they changed their minds."

Elizabeth was puzzled, "But why? I mean, the first time you met them they were adamant the ZPM would be returned only to their ancestors. What changed?"

John shrugged before replying, "I don't know. They just told us that it belongs to Atlantis. Although, I had the impression they were hiding something."

"Like?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't know, I didn't ask. I didn't want to ruin the moment with too many questions."

Weir nodded approvingly, "Good thinking. They could've decided to change their minds again." She turned to Rodney before she continued, "Rodney, I want that ZPM installed and everything tested as soon as possible. We have a phone call to make."

* * *

**Earth – SGC**

At the SGC business was as usual. Jack was holding a meeting with the SG-1 team, discussing recent developments including the appearance of someone else's team. "…so we don't know who they are."

"No sir," Carter responded dryly.

"GeneralO'Neill, after our encounter I asked other Jaffa if they have seen teams fitting the description. They said they occasionally have seen a team that fits the description, but they believed them to be of the Tau'ri, just with different clothing," Teal's interjected.

Jack thought about who they could be, and why they were so mysterious. "I just hope they are the same that sent us those messages."

"Hope? Why?" Daniel asked.

"Because, if they aren't, it means there are _two _new players on the galactic scene, and I don't think I can take it," Jack retorted, really not liking the idea. "Alright, enough about this. Carter, when is the Daedalus shakedown scheduled?"

Carted blinked, "Sir, it has already begun. The Daedalus has already reached the Alpha site where it will perform several tests to see how its new systems work."

'_Dammit! I missed it. Maybe I can catch up with them through the gate.' _He really wanted to see how the ship performed. "I think we are done here. If there's nothing more I'm going to the Alpha…"

A white beam of light encompassed Jack and he was gone.

After a moment of silence, Daniel was the first to speak, "So, are we going to eat something?"

"Yeah, I'm hungry." Sam replied.

Teal'c simply nodded and all of them headed for the mess hall.

In the meantime, Jack was beamed aboard Thor's ship. "… Site to see the Daedalus…"

Jack looked around realizing he wasn't in the SGC anymore. He turned and saw Thor standing in the center of the bridge. "Thor, buddy."

Thor blinked. He didn't mind O'Neill calling him '_buddy'_, except that he didn't know what buddy meant. He tried once to look on their Internet, but that thing was a nightmare. Most information there was wrong or irrelevant. He didn't understand how the people from Earth could find anything useful in there. One day he would just have to ask him what it means, "O'Neill, I apologize if I have interrupted something important."

Jack waved with his hand as to say '_no problem_' when he noticed something, "Thor, you look… different." Jack looked at Thor more intently, "You look… taller?"

"O'Neill, you have noticed. My new body is ten percent taller than the last one."

Jack had to ask, "Thor, doesn't a clone look the same? I mean isn't a clone like a copy?"

"It does, but after tens of thousands of years of cloning clones our body deteriorated and we needed to find a solution to the problem. We made a recent breakthrough that will solve the degenerative disease that afflicted the Asgard race for a very long time."

"That's great news. I'm very happy for you guys."

"Thank you O'Neill."

"We should celebrate. Listen, what do you say we go see the test of our new ship at the Alpha site."

Thor was grateful Jack didn't propose some kind of party, and he actually liked the idea of seeing how their new ship ferried. Thor nodded, "That is acceptable O'Neill." Thor touched one of the stones and the ship sped through hyperspace.

Jack looked at the hyperspace for a few seconds before casually turning toward Thor with a smug expression on his face, "We should be just in time for the plasma weapons test."

Thor blinked twice, "I didn't know you developed energy based weapons?"

Jack really liked the fact they now had some real weapons on their ship. "Oh yeah… well… we had help."

Thor was now very curious, "What kind of help?"

Jack took a deep breath before speaking, "Well, almost half a year ago we received a message from space. Carter did actually, on her computer. I can tell you, she was so excited that she was all over the place. The data had a ton of improvements for the Daedalus, and among them was also the finished and improved design for a plasma based weapon we were trying to develop. They also gained access to our entire database though. I can tell you, the president wasn't happy about that and neither was I. This is actually why I wanted to talk to you."

Thor listened carefully Jack's recollection of events while making deductions of his own. This wasn't a coincidence. The time they'd received the data coincided with the time he'd received the solution for their cloning problem. Unfortunately for Thor, Jack could sometimes be very perceptive.

Jack looked at Thor and knew he knows something, "Thor, you know something don't you?"

'_Busted,'_ Thor thought to himself. He shrugged before answering, "I have also received a similar data burst approximately at the same time as you have. It contained the cure for our disease."

"So, somebody gave you what your race needed the most, and did the same for us. It looks like they are helping us to become stronger so that we can fight the Goa'uld or anybody else on better terms." Jack thought at loud.

Thor blinked, "Your deduction is sound although, without more evidence we cannot be certain of their real motives."

Jack agreed with Thor statement, "Well, we know they are humans, but we don't know where they are coming from."

"How do you know they are humans?"

"Oh, SG-1 bumped into a four men team on a recent mission. They sabotaged one of Baal's facilities, and they had some fancy weapons with them. I think it's safe to say that this is too much of a coincidence not to be related."

Thor believed Jack to be correct, but he also caught one mistake Jack was making. They only looked human. He continued listening as Jack continued with his recollection of events that led to the destruction of the two remaining human replicator. He was a little pissed that they almost gave the replicator known as replicarter the only effective mean to destroy them. Thankfully, the message they had received saved them from making a big mistake, a mistake that could have cost them a lot of grief.

"Thor, there is one thing that troubles me. How did they know? I mean, it's not like we posted a big sign for everyone to see saying '_we have a human replicator on the Alpha site_'."

"If they were able to access your entire database, it is possible they have other means to monitor your actions." Thor said. What he didn't say was that to do something like that you needed to be in the system or even in orbit of the planet in question to do it. He knew there must be a cloaked ship or more likely a satellite relaying the collected data. Maybe he can find the satellite and contact them through it. Thor frowned mentally. If it was Goa'uld cloaking technology it would be easy to detect it, but if Alterran technology was involved, his task would be much more difficult.

"So, you think they are constantly spying on us?" Jack didn't like it.

"It is possible, O'Neill. Your technology is not advanced enough to detect advanced spying equipment. When we return to your planet, I will perform a detailed scan of your facilities." Thor replied.

"Thanks Thor. I don't really like being spied all the time, no matter what their intentions are."

Thor nodded and his console beeped, "We have reached your Alpha site. There is one ship in orbit around the planet. I presume that is the Daedalus?"

Jack looked at the large display on the bridge and saw the ship orbiting the planet, "Yes it is. Isn't it beautiful?"

Thor simply nodded, "Do you mind if I perform a scan of your new ship."

Jack waved with his hand, "Go for it."

* * *

**Alpha Site**

Thor scanned the ship for a few seconds before the results started scrolling on the display. Their new systems were considerable improvements if you'd compare them to the Prometheus' systems, but this wasn't exactly what he was looking for. He found it inspecting the power distribution conduits. They were of Ancient design, he was sure of it. His excitement ended shortly after when the Daedalus powered his shield and turned towards them. Their sensors have detected his scans. "Impressive. Your ship was able to detect my scans. They have powered their shields and weapons and they are approaching our position."

"Maybe is better if we open a channel and let them know who we are."

Thor started working on his console. "I have established a connection, you may speak."

Jack cleared his throat while trying to remember the name of the Daedalus' captain. "Colonel Coldwell, this is General O'Neill aboard Thor's ship. Please stand down weapons."

"_General O'Neill we picked up an active sensor scan of my ship. Weapons are powering down,"_ Coldwell replied over the comm. channel.

"No problem Colonel, I was just showing Thor our new ship. How is the ship performing?" Jack asked cheerfully.

"_It is performing better than expected. All tests so far have exceeded all expectations. We were about to head for the nearby asteroid field to test its new weapon systems. If you'd like to watch…"_ Coldwell replied.

"That's exactly why we are here Colonel. Please, lead the way."

"_Acknowledged, Coldwell out."_

The Daedalus sped toward the asteroid field no more than five minutes away with Thor following closely behind. Once they reached the field, they powered all their weapons systems. First, they fired from their railguns, shuttering large pieces from the asteroid they were targeting. Then they tested their missiles. The missile didn't have any armament because they only wanted to test the new propulsion system. Their new ion propulsion made the missiles accelerate almost three times faster, and it had better maneuverability than his predecessor, making it more difficult to target. The grand finale was the plasma weapons. The Daedalus had two fixed plasma cannons that could only shut forward and two other cannons that were omnidirectional, mounted on separate turrets one above and one bellow. Although, everything performed as expected, the two frontal cannons were the most powerful. Every shot they made was enough for the large asteroids to shatter under their tremendous power.

Thor watched intently at the scans his ship performed while the Daedalus fired its plasma weapons. His eyes grew larger when he saw the amount of power displayed by the two frontal cannons. He believed that even his ship's shields would eventually collapse under a sustained bombardment from these cannons. "Impressive O'Neill, this weapon is considerably stronger than what the Goa'uld are using on their ships."

Jack was happy. He finally had his big honking spaceguns. Now he only needed to convince the President to name the next ship the Enterprise and his dream would be fulfilled. "Yes they are. Although, they tell me those two guns suck the life out of the energy reserves aboard the ship."

Thor checked his readings and nodded, "Yes, your power reserves would be enough for approximately ten shots at full strength. After that, your rate of fire will decrease considerably. Still, I believe that you now have a ship capable of fighting the Goa'uld even when faced with more than one ship."

"That is what we hoped. Although it will be some time before we can test that theory. The Daedalus is scheduled to leave for the Pegasus galaxy the day after tomorrow."

Thor blinked, "You are going to search for Atlantis."

"Yes we are. We don't know what happened to our people. Probably they can't contact us or something even worse, and I know from experience it's not a good feeling being stranded somewhere without support. So we are sending the Daedalus. His hyperdrive is faster than the one the Prometheus has."

Thor waited for a moment leaving Jack with his thought. "O'Neill I must return you to your planet, and then head back to my galaxy. I must discuss this new information with the Council as soon as possible."

Jack snapped from his thoughts, "Oh yeah, sure. I have to go back too. It's not a good idea to leave the fort for too long. Who knows what those kids are doing when I'm out."

Thor's ship entered hyperspace for the short voyage back to Earth. Once there, Thor beamed Jack back in the conference room and began scanning for any surveillance device inside the SGC. He wasn't able to find any, but his ship detected a subspace transmission coming from the compound. He couldn't find out where the receiver was because the signal was omnidirectional, but that wasn't important anyway. He managed to find the modulation the signal's carrier wave used and implanted a message of his own. Immediately after, he departed for the Ida galaxy and his home planet.

* * *

**Andromeda galaxy – Liam's Space Station**

Liam was sitting on the control chair in his lab while some kind of device was being virtually constructed in front of him. The device floated like a hologram while pieces were constantly added to the whole. When the last piece was connected, the device materialized on the small pedestal below. Liam powered down the control chair and stood in front of the pedestal. He pushed a few buttons on one of the sides of the pedestal and the device started to hum. It didn't last for long before a few sparks flew from the device and the humming stopped.

'_Crap! You piece of junk why won't you work!' _Liam was trying to calm down without too much luck.

A voice behind him made things even worse. "Hello Liam."

Liam sighed, "Hello Aenea."

"Liam, you must stop what you are doing."

"Right to business I see. May I ask why?" Liam raised an eyebrow.

"The others don't want you to work on the device."

"I get that, but why?"

"They don't want you to interfere."

Liam rolled his eyes, "Unbelievable, I'm finally close to finding a way to get rid of that half ascended son-of-a-bitch, and who wants me to stop; the ones that are responsible for his state because I'm hundred and ten percent sure he didn't ascend on his own. I hate to sound repetitive, but I must ask again. WHY?"

Aenea sighed, "It is not your place to fix this."

Liam was now pissed, "FIX! I'm not trying to fix anything Aenea. I'm trying to prevent more bloodshed at the hand of that monster. You know, for beings that under no circumstances will interfere with the lower plane, you do that a lot. And who the hell helped that thing ascend in the first place?"

Aenea shrugged, "Oma."

'_Shit, crap… fuck, fuck, fuck.'_

Aenea could've sworn she saw smoke coming out of Liam's ears. She knew that Liam and Oma were good friends even though they disagreed on almost everything.

Aenea was also angry at Oma because she believed she'd somehow influenced Liam into leaving the higher plane of existence. She didn't know how, because Oma usually preached the opposite, but Liam changed more and more during the time he spent discussing things with her.

She waited patiently for Liam's cognitive abilities to return to normal before continuing, "I'm sorry, he tricked her somehow. She didn't know he was Anubis."

Liam sighed, "Aenea, I understand the gravity of what she did, and I can even imagine how pissed the others are at her and even understand their wishes to punish her, but please can you help me understand one thing?"

Aenea blinked, "And what would that be?"

"What did the people from the lower plane do to deserve this kind of punishment? I mean, while Oma is being punished by the others, a lot of people are dying down here as a direct result."

Aenea didn't have an exact answer to that. "The others have forbidden Anubis from using his powers or the knowledge he have gained while he was fully ascended."

"Really, so his sudden understanding of our technology and subsequent use of the same came from…" Liam waited for an answer.

Aenea frowned, "What do you want me to say? I don't know. Are you happy now?"

Liam shrugged, "No, not really."

Liam and Aenea stood in silence for a long time. They looked very depressed, no one knowing what to say.

Liam broke the silence first. "So, what do you think they'd do if I continue fiddling with this device?"

'_Shit! I had to know he wouldn't give up so easily.' _Aenea looked at Liam with a concerned expression. "I'm not sure, but it's possible they'll try to stop you. They are not very happy you are building a device that can kill an ascended being."

Liam looked puzzled, "I'm not building _that_. I'm building a forcefield strong enough to imprison him. Wait! Does that mean it is possible to kill an ascended being?"

'_Shit! Now I've really done it.' _Aenea tried to back up quickly, "No, no, it isn't. Look, I really have to go now… it's… very late."

He grinned, "Sure, no problem."

'_Damn, he didn't buy it. When the others hear about this… I'm so screwed.' _Aenea started fiddling with her fingers. "Look, is there any chance you could not mention what I said to anyone?"

Liam thought about it for a moment before answering truthfully, "Sure Aenea, no problem."

Happy with his answer, she decided the best thing she can do is to bail out before she says anything worse. "Thanks, I owe you one… bye."

She was gone before he had the time to respond.

'_So there is a way to kill the sucker. If I only knew how. They also didn't know I was planning on capturing the bastard instead of killing him. Maybe they wouldn't mind if I just imprison him for a few thousand years.'_

Liam was interrupted when one of his aides entered the lab, "Ancestor Liam, the satellite from Terra has received a message that was implanted by the Asgard. They want to meet with us."

Liam nodded, "Well it was only a matter of when anyway. Did they leave instructions when and where?"

"Yes Ancestor, they left coordinates in the Ida galaxy. Thor's ship will be there in three days' time."

"Very well, is there anything else?"

The aid grinned, "The first batch of corvette class ships have been completed in both galaxies. The pilots are already fighting who will fly them first."

Liam smiled at the last part. The corvette class ship was so maneuverable that every pilot wanted to try what they can do with it. Capital ships were relatively slow at turning and changing direction. That is why in a fight they would mostly rely on their shields to protect them. The corvettes were different. Their primary defensive capability was the ability to evade incoming fire from other capital ships, and because of it, the pilot's role was far more important than that on larger ships. A special interface had been designed for the pilots that would predict the path of incoming fire and display it on the pilot's hood, giving the pilots the option to mentally instruct the ship to follow the predefined evasive path or manually steer the ship. Only the best pilots would be serving aboard those ships, and everyone wanted to prove they were the best.

Liam recalled how much trouble he had designing the corvette. The initial design had the corvette at only 60 meters in length. Soon it became clear that there wasn't enough room to put everything he wanted in such a small vessel. He compromised and the final design of the ship was by more than fifteen meters longer. It would have been even longer if it wasn't for a few recent discoveries. The most important discovery was Naquadria. The Alterran never used Naquadria because the element was too unstable and because frankly they never needed the extra power. He read about Naquadria from the reports from the Tau'ri and how they had successfully created a stable reactor that they were using on their ships. The logic was simple. Instead of using pure Naquadah rods in the reactor, they laced them with twenty percent Naquadria. The output was more than doubled without making the Naquadria go critical. With the same logic Liam redesigned the Naquadah reactors the Alterran used. He was able to mix the Naquadah with an even greater percentage of Naquadria while still retaining the essential stability of the core. The results were outstanding with almost four hundred percent increase in power output.

The corvettes had a few problems Liam didn't know how to solve. Since the new Naquadah/Naquadria reactor essentially had the same configuration as the older model just with different fuel, the reactor had major heating issues. Because of it, Liam decided that the reactor would have two operating modes. The normal mode could give a hundred percent power output just like the old one. The burst mode could give up to four hundred percent power output, but it could last for only half an hour before the reactor would automatically shut down to prevent melting. Liam didn't think it was too big of a problem, such power output would be usually required only in battle, and when did battles last longer than half an hour. The other time you would need such power was while traveling at high speeds through hyperspace, but the newly designed compact hyperdrive wasn't designed with endurance in mind in the first place. If you ran the ship for more than thirty minutes at full speed, three things would happen and not always in the same order. The reactor would shut down, the hyperdrive would burn out, or the crew would be cooked to death because the support system couldn't dissipate so much heat from both the reactor and hyperdrive. All in all this was the most powerful ship he had ever built if compared to his size. The destroyer will come close, but it wasn't ready yet. He had to first upgrade the cruisers' reactors, something that will give the ship enough power to cross the void between galaxies in less than a week even without the need for a ZPM. Liam had enough ZPMs for now, but the number of ZPMs he had was final. The next ZPM would be built in almost five years and that meant he had to be careful how he was going to use them.

Later that day, Liam watched the hyperdrive test the corvette made. As predicted after twenty eight minutes, a warning sound notified the pilot that it was time to slow down or the ship would do it for him instead. In that time, the ship had traveled almost 30,000 light-years, or one third of the Pegasus galaxy. The other tests have performed as expected, except for one. The advanced cloaking system needed more than the hundred percent power output the reactor put out in normal mode, which meant the ship would have to decloak after some time or the reactor would overheat. It wasn't ideal, but Liam was more than satisfied with the ship's performance. The ship needed twelve people to operate properly. Additionally, the ship could hold two more teams and had a hangar bay that could barely hold two puddle jumpers or other ships of similar size.

Liam beamed aboard his ship to prepare for the long journey to the Ida galaxy. There was no reason to hide from the Asgard anymore, and he intended to introduce himself to them first even before he received their message. The long drive was going to last almost a day and a half at cruising speed. He didn't want to push his engines too much because he made quite the mileage in the last few months and he had time to spare before the meeting anyway. His ship had a well-equipped lab so time wouldn't be wasted doing nothing. He was also troubled by the fact that his brothers and sisters upstairs didn't know what the device he was developing was supposed to do, which was strange because it isn't easy to hide something from ascended beings. Then he remembered that he worked on the device mostly on his ship while traveling through hyperspace and he got caught only when he worked in the lab aboard the station. That gave him the idea to continue working on the device only while traveling through hyperspace. He remembered what it was like when he was ascended. Powerful and free to roam the universe, but that didn't mean he had the power to do whatever he wanted. Hyperspace as well as many other dimensions were off-limit unless an ascended being had been already on board a ship before entering that dimension. He also wondered what would happen to an ascended being if the ship blew up while he was on-board and while traveling through hyperspace. Would he be destroyed or would his energy somehow find his way back to normal space? He thought Anubis would be the perfect test subject.

* * *

**Earth - SGC**

While Liam was traveling to the Ida Galaxy, the SGC received their first intergalactic phone call from Atlantis. Everyone was ecstatic at the news, but it didn't last for long. Only they could be so cursed to stumble upon a new and powerful enemy the first day in another galaxy. The biggest problem was they didn't have any way to contact Atlantis back to send help. The Deadalus would never reach them in time before the Wraith reached them or at least that was what they thought. Luckily, Daniel was able to find the location of another ZPM. The troubling part was that they also found a video recording buried with the ZPM, clearly indicating the SG-1 and O'Neil went back in time to prevent Ra from taking the ZPM with him. Nobody liked the idea of traveling through time, but at least this time it looked as everything went well. Jack even got some new fish in his previously barren pond.

Now, with a ZPM at their disposal, they were able to send the much-needed supplies, and the Deadalus departed with the ZPM on-board, allowing him to travel much faster.

Jack was in Daniel's lab with Sam and Teal'c discussing recent events. "What do you think of these '_space vampires_'?"

Daniel thought that Atlantis was screwed, but he didn't want to say it like that, "I think it will be tough."

"So you think they are screwed?"

Daniel blinked, _'What? Is he reading my mind?'_ He nodded with an expression saying '_pretty much_'.

Sam interjected by being more optimistic, "I think they have a shot if the Deadalus arrives in time. The city is shielded so…"

Jack thought about that, "Yeah, I'm not so sure it will be enough. I mean, yes the Daedalus with the ZPM is powerful, but did you see how big those hive ships are? And if the Deadalus can't destroy them, the city will be besieged just like it happened to the Ancients. How long would the shield last then?"

An awkward silence had followed Jack's rhetoric question before Teal'c replied, "O'Neill, we have done everything that we could to insure their survival. Now we can only hope they will find a way. On many occasions odds were not on our side, yet we always prevailed."

"You are right Teal'c, we must stay positive." Jack chirped cheerfully.

'_They are so screwed," _Teal'c thought, but only nodded in confirmation to Jack's remark.

Their small reunion was interrupted when the alarm, signaling an unscheduled wormhole, started blazing through the SGC and they took off immediately to see who was coming. Once they reached the gateroom, they saw Master Bra'tac descending the ramp in front of the gate. Teal'c was first to greet the newcomer in the usual Jaffa stile, "Master Bra'tac, it is great to see you."

"It is great to see you too Teal'c. There is much we need to discuss."

"Alright kids, let's go to the conference room." Jack replied in his playful way.

Bra'tac for the first time raised an eyebrow, stunning even Teal'c, _'Kids?'_

Daniel rolled his eyes, but didn't want to say anything; usually it made things even worse. He just took off following Jack and the others did the same. Once they were all seated, the conversation began.

"So, Bra'tac what is it?" Jack asked a little more seriously.

"I came here to discuss a matter of great importance. As you know the Jaffa's rebellion is going well. We have been gathering more support every day and we are growing in numbers as well, but we fear it is not fast enough. Ba'al is winning in his war against the System Lords and once that happens, he will turn his attention to both of us." Bra'tac ended with great concern in his voice.

Sam didn't think this was any news. "Bra'tac we are aware of this, but that doesn't change the fact that we don't have the resources to fight Baal's fleet."

Bra'tac nodded, "I am well aware of it and that is why we need to act now or we will lose this war."

Jack was the one to ask, "How?"

"The rebellion needs to grow faster and I know only one way to do it," Bra'tac began to answer Jack's question.

Teal'c didn't let him finish, "You want to attack Dakara."

Jack watched Bra'tac simply nod while smiling, "What! This is nuts!"

Bra'tac turned to face Jack, "O'Neill, Dakara is the planet where the Jaffas were born. If we take Dakara from Baal, many will see the Goa'uld as false gods and join our cause."

"I get that, but we don't have the ships to attack Baal's forces."

Bra'tac smiled, "We do."

Jack was stunned, "What do you mean we do?"

"We have several Ha'tak vessels at our disposal, but we must act quickly. Baal has initiated a major campaign against the System Lords and only a few ships remain in orbit around Dakara. We also heard you have a very powerful new ship at your disposal."

Jack sighed, "Yes we do, but we don't." Seeing Bra'tac confused expression he continued, "The Daedalus is on his way to the Pegasus galaxy to try and help our people there. We only have the Prometheus here."

"That is most unfortunate, but I still think we can win the battle with what we have."

Jack wasn't that sure, but this wasn't his biggest concern, "Alright, let's say we can take Dakara. How do you intend to hold it once Baal turns his entire fleet around? He will destroy the few ships we have easy, and then he'll blast our troops on the planet from orbit."

Bra'tac wanted to reply to Jack how it didn't matter, because the Jaffa would fight to their deaths and how their cause was just, but Sam answered before he could say anything.

"Sir, I think I have a solution."

Jack, as well as everybody else turned to Sam. "You do?"

Sam nodded, "You remember when I told you the plasma weapon developed for the Daedalus could be scaled for other ships like our fighters."

"Vaguely, yes."

"Well, it can be scaled up as well, so we immediately started designing a ground to orbit variant that we would place all around Earth. We have built three so far which is not enough to cover the entire planet, but Dakara doesn't need full coverage."

Jack was puzzled, "Why I didn't know about this?"

"You should have, sir. You must have received the report about it."

'_Dammit, I must start reading those damn reports.'_ Jack thought while nodding. "And they will be enough to keep Baal's fleet at bay?"

Sam nodded, "They should. They are five times the size of what we have on the Daedalus."

Jack whistled while thinking what those guns could do, "Wait, if they are so big, how are we to transport them to Dakara? They won't fit on the Prometheus."

Sam nodded, "No the Prometheus can't take even one of them, but Bra'tac just said they have several Ha'tak at their disposal. The cannon should fit in their cargo bay without trouble. Bra'tac how many ships do you have?"

"We have five ships. At least three of them are close enough to be here in two days." Bra'tac replied.

"Great, if you can redirect those ships here we can pull this off."

Jack frowned, "Wait, wait, I still need the President to authorize this, and even with these cannons protecting the skies, that doesn't mean Bocce there can't land troops outside the range of the weapons, and attack on foot. Bra'tac how many people do you have?"

"We have more than two thousand men."

"You see, that's not enough. Baal could bring ten times that number easy."

Bra'tac turned to Jack and looked him directly in the eyes, "O'Neill, are you saying we cannot succeed?"

"No, I'm saying that we need a plan that works if we want to sell this to the President."

Strangely enough, Teal'c was the one to find the solution, "While I was here on Earth I watched several documentaries showing your ground forces using different vehicles of great power that the Goa'uld or Jaffa have never seen. I believe that with such armament even a smaller army could win against a much larger one."

Teal'c was right. With tanks, APCs and the support of the artillery even a large Jaffa army would perish. Now the only problem was how to convince the President.

Jack sighed, "I think I need to go to Washington for this. In the meantime, Bra'tac I want you to redirect those five ships to Earth, and I want your people already on board and ready. If the President approves, we can launch our attack from here in approximately ten days."

Jack spent that evening trying to explain their plan to the President and the Joint Chiefs. In the beginning, they looked at him like he had finally gone completely bonkers. He feared that someone would stop listening to him and call an ambulance to take him to the first psychiatric hospital and leave him there for the rest of his life. As time progressed, more and more people in the room were convinced that it wasn't such an insane idea and that if they succeeded it would be a great step forward in the war against the Goa'uld. Still, many problems were there that concerned the President. For instance, he practically yelled at Jack on how the hell he was planning to land five Ha'taks on Earth without anyone noticing the big pyramids falling from the sky. He told the President not to worry because Carter said so. When the President asked him to explain, he cursed and phoned Sam to see what she meant. As it turns out, the ships wouldn't need to land on Earth. Instead, they would use the beaming system aboard the Prometheus to transport the cannons to the Ha'taks. In the end, the notion of fighting the war on another planet instead of Earth, won the argument and Jack got the green light. Half-joking Jack told them that if everything went as planned, instead of a second star, he wanted to name their next ship the Enterprise. They all laughed. They would rather give him the second star. Jack mostly joked because he knew his career was on the line, and if things did go south as they usually do, he would be the first in line to feel the consequences. Fortunately, Jack didn't care too much about his career. He wanted to retire anyway.

* * *

**Ida galaxy – rendezvous point**

Liam was at least an hour early, but it didn't matter. When his ship exited hyperspace Thor was already there waiting and quickly after, Thor appeared on Liam's main display.

Thor introduced himself, "I am Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard Fleet. Thank you for coming."

Liam bowed slightly, "Greetings Supreme Commander. I'm Liam the founder of the Guardian's Order. I'm lowering my shield so that you can beam aboard…"

Liam didn't even finish his sentence when Thor was already on his bridge. Thor walked slowly as all Asgard do until he came in front of Liam. He scrutinized the man for a moment before speaking, "You are Alterra."

"I am." Liam replied.

Thor was puzzled, "How?"

Liam sighed, "That is a rather long story. In short, I was ascended then I came back."

Thor was relentless, "Why?"

"That is an even longer story. Again in short, after five million years upstairs I decided it was time for changes."

"What kind of changes?"

"Some are personal, but also other things that need to be done, things that were left unfinished when we ascended." Liam answered.

Thor blinked twice, "Very cryptic, yet I think I understand."

Now it was time for Liam to blink, "You do?"

"Yes. From what we learned when Daniel Jackson ascended we know that not everyone on the higher plane of existence believes what the majority does. When you mentioned things that need to be done, I suppose you refer to the Goa'uld and the newly discovered threat in the Pegasus galaxy. Although, I do not know what your personal reasons are for descending." Thor explained.

"You actually did understand most of what I was saying."

"Does that mean that you are alone in your quest?" Thor asked

"Yes and no. I am the only Alterran in this plane of existence, but I'm working with an advanced human race that I created a long time ago. With them, we created the Guardian's Order.

"I suppose this advanced race of humans is not in the Milky Way galaxy. We would have detected them."

"They are in the Andromeda galaxy. When I started all this, it looked as the safest place. " Liam frowned.

"From your expression I would say it is not the case anymore."

Liam sighed, "No it isn't. We could have an enemy there at our doorsteps very soon."

"I see. Is there any way we can help?"

"Oh, but you are already helping. You helped the people from Terra and I believe they will play a vital role in the years to come."

"They helped us more than we helped them. We also believe they will have a great role in future events." Thor waited for a moment, "Do you have any plan that involves us in the near future."

Liam thought, "At the moment, I believe that you need to rebuild what you'd lost in the war with the Replicators. I'm not sure what the future will hold for us, but my hope is that one day the Great Alliance could be restored with again four races, the Nox, the Asgard, the people from Terra and my people."

Thor nodded, "This is my hope as well, but I must warn you that the Nox have become isolationists."

"I know, but I think this is more because of the current circumstances in the galaxy than belief that _that _is the right way. If I'm wrong, we will have to do without them."

"The Asgard race is in great debt with you Liam. If you have not sent the data, we would have died very soon."

"I'm glad the data was helpful, and no debt is required. Our races were once good friends, and I don't think that will ever change."

Thor bowed slightly, "Thank you, this is my hope as well."

"Thor I need to ask you a favor. I don't want for the Tau'ri to know about me, not yet anyway."

Thor thought about it before answering, "As you wish, but can I ask what your reasons are?"

"There is still too much uncertainty about them. They have progressed very fast in the last few years if we only look at the technology they possess now, but socially they are still young. Their people still don't know anything about the universe, they are far from being united and their politicians can change their minds in a blink of an eye; something that happened on many occasions."

Thor sighed, "That is what the Asgard Council fears as well. They have great potential, but the path they will take is still uncertain."

"Well, we will have to help them go in the right direction even without them knowing it."

"You already have a plan?"

"I do, several in fact, and I will need your help to accomplish some of them, but not now. They have too much on their plate right now with the Goa'uld on one side and Atlantis on the other."

"Let us know when you need us and we will try to help." Thor paused for a moment. "The Council will want to meet with you."

"No problem there, but let's wait until things settle down a little in both galaxies. Depending on the outcome, we will have much to discuss."

"Very well, I will inform the Council."

Liam and Thor spent the next thirty minutes talking about many topics before they had to depart. Liam decided to go to the Andromeda galaxy to check how things were progressing there and to check on the possible threat there. His brief encounter with one of their ships steered the hostile race in the opposite direction, but it won't last for long before they turn back to their previous course.

* * *

**Pegasus galaxy - Atlantis**

Elizabeth watched as people frantically moved around in the gateroom below. Two days ago, they'd received several shipments through the gate before the Daedalus had to live with the ZPM if they wanted the ship to reach them in time. She wasn't very happy with Colonel Everett that had arrived through the gate and had taken command of the military personnel present on Atlantis. He was different from John and she had trouble even speaking to the man. Making him listen was outright impossible. Even worse, John and the Colonel didn't see eye to eye, probably because the Colonel blamed John for Colonel Sumner's death, and since John blamed himself as well, he wasn't reacting to the Colonel as it should have.

Elizabeth watched as the display showed the Wraith location. They would reach them before the Daedalus arrived. They also had a big problem with their railguns and the Colonel was pissed. No one thought that the shield would stop the railguns from going through, inevitably making the railguns useless if you wanted the shield active. John thought about it and he had come up with a solution. They'd placed all their railguns on the end of the city's piers and if they need them, they would shrink the shield enough for the guns to be outside the shield's perimeter.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Lantea's System, Rodney was working on the Lantean defense satellite. He didn't know that Liam's people spent almost two days repairing the damage the satellite sustained. Liam believed that the satellite would give them the best chance of survival. The weapon was the most powerful the Lantean have ever created. The satellite was a powerful particle accelerator firing a focused beam of antiprotons. It was the only energy weapon the Alterran, and consequently the Lantean, ever built that used antimatter. The particle accelerator needed to be almost a mile long to work, which made it almost impossible to fit on ships, at least the smaller once. Strength wasn't the only strong point of the weapon. His range of fire would outclass any other known weapon.

The Lanteans must have found the designs for the weapon in Atlantis' database and constructed the defensive satellites. The only thing Liam didn't understand was why they didn't place a shield on the damn thing. It would have made the weapon so much more powerful and there was not enough time to make the necessary modification now. Liam was sure the satellite wouldn't survive, but also hoped it would destroy at least a few hives in the process.

Rodney brought the Naquadah Mk. II generator instead of the much weaker predecessor since the chair wouldn't need it and the satellite's fire rate depended on the energy source used. Once the testing was done and the satellite was deemed ready, they all bailed out. The puddle jumper would stay close to control the weapon remotely.

They didn't have to wait too long for the Wraith to show up. The Wraith had three hive ships and a dozen cruisers at their disposal. Unaware of the satellite existence, the Wraith proceeded toward Atlantis. Their first surprise came when they were half way there and the satellite fired, splitting a hive in half before exploding completely. The Wraith decided to turn around and face the satellite, but it was like watching a group of whales turning in slow motion. They didn't even finish the turnaround when the second hive exploded as well, taking out two cruisers in the explosion. If nothing else, it could be said the Wraith were persistent. As their cruisers were faster, they left the only remaining hive behind, pushing toward the satellite at full speed. Rodney decided to ignore the cruisers, firing straight at the last hive. That was the last shot the satellite would ever make. The cruisers entered weapons range and fired at the satellite, destroying it in mere seconds. The Wraith turned again, continuing with their slow but steady approach toward Atlantis with the ten remaining cruisers, but witthout the three hives. Atlantis needed to somehow survive until Daedalus would arrive.

The wraith detected the nuclear devices Colonel Everett had placed in orbit thinking the Wraith would simply enter orbit. Instead, the wraith bombarded them with asteroids. Colonel Everett was really pissed his plan didn't work. Still, the plan made the Wraith be more cautious. After losing three hives and two cruisers, the Wraith decided to approach Atlantis with the respect it deserves. They knew what the drone weapon could do to them, so they decided to send darts to deplete the drone's reserves before the cruisers entered orbit. The Wraith didn't know that humans were masters in building cheap weapons. The darts descended into Lantea's atmosphere going straight for the city. Before they reached weapons range Atlantis' shield sprang to life. The darts started shooting at the shield and in the process they missed to notice the unprotected railguns on the piers. Three railguns opened fire at the approaching darts taking several down. Once the darts passed the city, the railguns on the other side picked up the job and more darts exploded. Still, there were hundreds of them and they were now more prepared. The darts split up heading for the railguns on the pears. The marines added their own fire as much as they could. Some, launched missiles while others fired from their P90 and machine guns. The darts scored a few good hits, taking out one railgun and several marines with it. Other darts just flew above deploying Wraith drones on the pier. Soon the fight was as much on the ground as in the air and some Wraith managed to sneak under the shield, headed for the inner city.

Colonel Everett didn't like it. They have taken out almost half the darts, but they had too many losses for his liking and the wraith sneaking into the city was the final straw. He turned to Rodney who was on the console nearby, "Enlarge the shield."

Rodney looked at John and Elizabeth as to ask confirmation. Elizabeth nodded and Rodney turned to work on the console, "Done."

John looked at the sensor's screen showing at least fifty wraiths roaming the city, "I think we have a pretty serious infestation on our hands."

Everett was already picking up his rifle and checking his ammo. "Major I want you to head to the chair room, but I don't want you to use the drones to shoot at the darts. They can't do squat with the shield raised. However, if the cruisers reach orbit you are authorized to shoot them, and make every drone count."

"Yes sir," John nodded and headed outside.

Everett turned to Rodney, "Doctor McKay, what is the wraith doing?"

Rodney watched the sensor readings before replying, "They aren't doing anything. The darts are circling the city and the cruisers are still keeping the distance. No, wait… the darts are retreating. Why are they doing that?"

Everett frowned, "Because they are bringing the big guns and they don't want the darts to be in the way."

Rodney wasn't happy with the answer. "Oh, that's not good. So, what do we do?"

"There is nothing we can do except wait for the Daedalus to arrive and see what they can do about those cruisers."

In space, the Wraith cruisers started moving toward the planet. John fired the remaining few dozen drones they had and managed to critically damage another cruiser. The cruiser went off course, dropping through the atmosphere at high velocity. The ship soon became a fireball, breaking apart from the high attrition with the atmosphere.

The remaining nine ships were taking positions above Atlantis when one larger and two smaller ships de-cloaked while on a strafing run against the wraith cruisers. Two mini-stars flew from the larger ship with incredible speed toward their targets. Those stars were torpedoes with five pounds of antimatter, the equivalent of a hundred megaton bomb. Two bright suns illuminated the night sky obliterating the two unfortunate cruisers. The larger ship fired his four beam energy weapons at the next ship, while the two corvettes fired from their four frontal pulse weapons and the rotatory beam cannon on top of the ship, destroying any dart in their way. Once the way was cleared of darts, the two corvettes targeted the first available cruiser and unleashed everything they had. The cruisers tried to hit the corvettes, but it looked like the ships knew where they were targeting, changing direction before being hit. The ships had the agility usually seen only in fighters. Once the three ships had passed through the group of enemy ships, the larger ship fired two more torpedoes that flew backward toward the two cruisers standing last in line. In the first attack, they managed to destroy five cruisers and damage two to at least some degree. Now they were turning back to finish the job. The four remaining ships tried to do their best, but ended up being destroyed shortly after. The ships made another run to take down the few remaining darts that survived the nuclear blasts and the relentless fire from the corvettes. As soon as they finished their job, they all entered hyperspace.

The first thing the people of Atlantis noticed was the bright flashes of light that changed night into day. Rodney worked the consoles trying to find out what was happening, but before the sensors could recuperate from the massive energy release in orbit, two more explosions with the same intensity went off.

Everett looked at Rodney, "Doctor McKay, what is going on."

"I don't know… give me a minute." Rodney replied while still working on the console trying to clear the sensor readings from all the radiation in orbit. Rodney suddenly stopped, puzzled by what the readings were telling him, "Hah, they are gone."

Elizabeth looked at Rodney, "Who is gone Rodney?"

"The Wraith, they have all been destroyed. Those flashes of light were massive nuclear explosions."

John just entered the room, "What's going on?"

Rodney still worked on the console, "Wait a minute, I think… got it! If these readings are right three ships came out of nowhere and attacked the wraith cruisers with nuclear weapons as well as several different types of energy weapons I've never seen. The have destroyed all of them in less than five minutes."

Elizabeth began firing questions one after the other, "What? Who can do something like this? Are they still there? Can we contact them? Rodney, contact them now!"

Seeing that everyone was looking at her, she felt embarrassed for losing control like this. Thankfully, Rodney broke the silence.

"They've left." Rodney suddenly noticed something, "Hah, are we sure the Ancients left this galaxy?"

Elizabeth blinked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, they have used antimatter warheads."

Everett looked confused, "Didn't you just say they used nuclear weapons?"

"Yes this is also a nuclear reaction, but not like we do it. Our nuclear weapons use fusion or fission, but these bombs use antimatter, which is way more powerful. Those bombs had only a few pounds of antimatter each."

Elizabeth was pissed. She wanted to know why Rodney asked that question, but he was already lost in his mumbling, "Rodney forget about this and tell me why did you ask about the Ancients and what antimatter has anything to do with it."

"Well, the type of antimatter they've used are antiprotons, and I know only one other weapon that uses them and that's the satellite the Ancients had built. I mean it's not that easy to use antimatter in the first place."

"Maybe there are others who use it." John interjected.

Rodney was irritated. "Everything is possible, but didn't you listen. In all three galaxies, and I'm including the Asgard in the Ida, this is the first time someone uses antimatter, and for a good reason. Producing it is incredibly difficult and storing it is even worse. You need a containment field that would hold the antimatter in complete vacuum and when I say complete I mean not even space is so completely devoid of any matter."

Elizabeth was thoughtful the whole time. "John, do you think they are the one that helped us in the past, or the race that helped Earth and the Asgard?"

John shrugged, "Don't know, it's possible."

Rodney heard a beeping sound coming from the console, "we have another ship on our sensors."

"Are they back?" Everett asked.

"Nope, the Daedalus is here."

Everybody relaxed a little now that the Daedalus was finally here. They contacted the ship and exchanged information on what happened recently. Another positive side of Daedalus arrival was their pest problem. They dropped the city shield and the Daedalus beamed the remaining Wraith into space. Something the Asgard aboard the ship wasn't very happy to do. The Daedalus began beaming down supplies he was carrying when Atlantis' sensors detected a new group of Wraith hives on route to Atlantis, and this group was much larger than the first one. It looked as the Wraith wouldn't give up so easily. Plans were being evaluated on how to defend the city, but even with the Daedalus here, fighting such a force was suicide. That was true until John came up with the idea to take the fight to them before they reached Atlantis and see how it goes. Rodney selected a stopping point where the wraith would need to exit hyperspace before reaching Atlantis and after almost three days of preparations, the Daedalus departed.

The Daedalus waited for two hours before the wraith showed up. Taking the enemy by surprise, the Daedalus attacked the convoy from behind firing four nukes at the last two hives. To their surprise, the hives didn't get complexly destroyed by the blasts. I took a dozen more shots with the energy cannons for the hives to break apart and explode. In the meantime, the wraith had time to deploy their darts and cruisers and turn to face the lonely ship. The second time the Daedalus fired his warheads, only one managed to go through the darts that were now screening their hives, again doing damage to the massive ships but not enough to destroy it. The Daedalus fired his railguns at the incoming waves of darts, but there were hundreds of them and some of the darts didn't just fire at them. They decided to ram them, uncaring for their lives. The hives and cruisers were bringing their heavy weapons to bear and Daedalus' shield became a constant bright blue bubble from the intense fire. If it wasn't for the ZPM purring terawatts of pure power in the shield generators, the ship would have already been destroyed. Thankfully, John got an idea how to change the odds in their favor and his plan was soon implemented. Hives started to explode apparently for no reason. The Asgard on-board wasn't too pleased by the method employed to destroy the ships. One thing was using the beaming system to dispatch of a few wraiths in space and another beaming a warhead to the enemy hives. Reluctantly, the Asgard on-board disabled the safety protocols designed to prevent Asgard tech from being used as a weapon and warhead after warhead was beamed to the hives. The fun stopped after the fourth hive exploded when the Wraith somehow managed to jam their beaming technology.

The ZPM was powerful enough to provide power to the shields for several days for the kind of senseless beating the Daedalus was being put through, but the shield generators weren't. Pumping so much power to keep the shields up meant the generators were overloading. The shields were already at fifty percent efficiency and some of the enemy weapon's energy was able to bleed through damaging the ship. Things weren't looking good for the Daedalus.

Suddenly, three hyperspace windows opened on the opposite side and the same three ships seen before entered the fray. The large one fired four antimatter warheads at four hives directly in their backside. Two went through and hit the hives, one was stopped by a cruiser that got in the way and the last one was destroyed by a lucky shot fired from another hive. The cruiser was destroyed, but the hives were only damaged and still able to fight. Several hives turned to face the new opponents and hundreds of darts changed positions to screen their hives from the other side. The cruiser and corvettes passed through the wraith formation firing as much as they could and once on the other side the cruiser launched backward a few more torpedoes. Most were intercepted before reaching the hives, but a few were able to get through. There was also another difference between the nuclear warheads the Tau'ri used and the antimatter torpedoes the Guardians employed. Soon it became clear that antimatter torpedoes explode even when intercepted by darts or other weapon's fire. It was dangerous to use antimatter torpedoes because they could get shot near your own ship and such an explosion was dangerous to any ship in the vicinity. It was also dangerous to the darts nearby. Hundreds of darts simply vanished in the explosions and the screening fleet was slowly thinning out. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough. The two corvettes had to retreat after receiving a few lucky shots from a cruiser, and the Daedalus and the other cruiser didn't look any better. To make things worse they had exhausted all their warheads and the energy weapons were overheating from the extensive usage. The wraith was badly bitten but the remaining three hives and more than a dozen cruisers were too much for the two cruisers in their current state. Shortly after, three hyperspace windows opened and the three ships went through, leaving the Daedalus alone. The Daedalus shields were at twenty percent and the situation was grim to say the least.

The officer at the comm. console looked at some data scrolling by before notifying the captain, "Colonel, the three ships have left the battle. They've sent as a message apologizing for leaving, but their shields were almost depleted and all ships have sustained extensive damage."

The Colonel, "Very well, how is our ship doing?"

Shields at twenty percent efficiency, we have multiple breaches on the outer hull, the support system is malfunctioning, and our plasma weapons' fire rate has dropped considerably due to overheating," another lieutenant replied.

The Colonel didn't have time to reply when another blast rocked the ship violently and one of the consoles behind him blew up. "This is enough. Set course for Atlantis."

The Daedalus left the battle, reaching Atlantis only fifteen minutes later. Coldwell and John beamed down to the city. They were discussing what to do next when the Wraith showed up. They clearly decided to speedup things probably not wanting to give them time to recover, because the Wraith entered orbit above Atlantis and started their relentless bombardment as it was punishment for what they dared to do.

"For how long will the shield hold Rodney?" Elizabeth asked with clear concern in her voice.

"The ZPM is fully charged we should be okay for a month or so."

"It doesn't matter for how long the shield lasts, we are screwed. They won't leave and I can assure you, they are going to send more ships the same way they did with the Ancients," John said.

Elizabeth frowned, "So what, we give up and leave the city?"

John shrugged, "I don't know Elizabeth, but I know that as long as the wraith knows we are here they won't stop."

Rodney blinked, "So what if they don't know we are here?"

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"I think I can cloak the city. We can use the cloaking system from one of the puddle jumpers and connect it to the shield emitters."

John wasn't sure about that, "They already know we are here Rodney. They will know we are still here even if we vanish."

"They won't if we make them believe we destroyed the city."

"How do you intend to do that?" Elizabeth asked.

"We blow up one of the Mark VIII above the city and while their sensors are blinded we switch from shield to cloak." Rodney answered.

"Won't the explosion burn the city?" John asked irritated by the idea.

"No if we time it correctly." Rodney replied.

John and Elizabeth looked at each other, unsure if this was a good idea. John turned to Rodney. "Are you hundred percent sure this will work?"

Now it was Rodney's turn to be irritated. They always wanted a hundred percent plan. "Of course I'm not sure, but do we have any other option?"

They stayed there for a few moments before agreeing it was their best option, if not the only one. Everybody went to work. Another problem was that they didn't have a mark VIII. The Daedalus had spent everything he had during the battle. The only way was to ship Daedalus' ZPM through the gate and wait for them to send back the nuke. Even worse, since the shield was up, beaming was impossible so the Daedalus had to go to another planet to transport the ZPM through the gate, and wait to receive the nuke the same way, but no matter how difficult it was, they finally managed to set up their plan.

Everything was ready and Teyla telepathically connected with the wraith, fooling them into believing they were about to destroy the city. The wraith stopped firing since their entire plan was to capture the city as it was the only way to spread to another galaxy and a new and rich feeding ground. Seconds after they stopped firing, the Daedalus beamed the mark eight above the city. The large nuclear mushroom above the city obscured Atlantis from the wraith just long enough for them to cloak the city. The wraith stood there for at least fifteen minutes before deciding to leave since, apparently, nothing had survived the blast.

Aboard Atlantis the cheering and celebrating were more than welcomed. It had been a very long and stressful week after all. The Edenians at the Pegasus outpost were also celebrating the survival of Atlantis and the safe return of their three ships. Liam thought that it couldn't have gone better. He already planned to send them another ZPM and drones so they can destroy the hives in orbit, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. It would have never been enough. The wraith would have sent more and more ships and no matter how much he helped, it would have been all for nothing. The humans didn't know the real number of wraith hives in the galaxy. They believed the data they had, showing sixty hives represented them all, but that was only the hives that belonged to the same clan and there were dozens of clans, some even bigger than this one. Hopefully they'll have enough time to build up their strength before the wraith comes back.

The Daedalus had to spend the next few days repairing the damage before he could leave Atlantis for the journey back home that, without the ZPM, it would take almost three weeks.

* * *

**Dakara**

The Prometheus exited hyperspace already in weapons range and launched the only two upgraded Mark IXs at his disposal. Unfortunately, the enemy ship raised their shields in time, but this didn't matter because it wasn't their job to destroy the ships. Another use of nuclear weapon is that, for several minutes after the explosion, most communication and sensors would be jammed because of the high radiation produced. After the explosions that managed to destroy the three Al'kesh and blind the other two enemy ships, five Ha'taks led by Bra'tac entered the scene, firing at the enemy before they even knew what was going on. Severely outnumbered, the fight had lasted less than two minutes before the enemy ships were destroyed. The five Ha'taks and the Prometheus regrouped in orbit to begin phase two of the invasion of Dakara.

They had chosen their timing correctly. It was noon on Dakara, and nobody noticed the two explosions in the sky, something that would give them more time to act and still have the element of surprise on their side. SG-1, Bra'tac and Colonel Pendergast were discussing their primary targets. They had to take control of the gate as soon as possible, but also take down any stronghold that had gliders or Al'kesh present before they could take off.

"First we launch our F-302s and gliders to take out any enemy glider or Al'kesh that takes off the ground and then we bomb the three strongholds outside the city. Moments before our fighters reach the ground we beam down one platoon of marines in front of the gate and another one inside the main building." Sam explained.

Bra'tac nodded, "What about my warriors?"

"Unfortunately, we have only one beaming array so we can't beam everyone. You will use the two Al'kesh at your disposal and land your troops at the entrance of the city. You'll have to stop any reinforcements from entering the courtyard and the main building. This is the most important part of the plan. If reinforcements are able to reach the inner city we could be overwhelmed before securing the area. Once we've beamed all our marines, we start beaming the rest of your people down to provide additional support wherever is needed." Sam explained.

Everyone nodded satisfied with the plan. "We'll begin in ten minutes. Tell everyone to be ready." Sam concluded the meeting.

Ten minutes later, more than a hundred fighters from all six ships poured out directed at the capital. As they reached the outskirts of the city, several groups detached from the main formation and went to take out the three strongholds holding most of the death gliders on the ground while the remaining force engaged the enemy on the ground as well as the few gliders already in the air. At the same time, team after team of marines was beamed in the courtyard and the main building. Sargent Jenkins and his squad were beamed as close as possible to the main hall. Their mission was to take out the low-level Goa'uld in charge of the planet and take any communication devices he may have before he could contact Ba'al.

The first team turned the corner and fired at the two guards stationed at the entrance door. They fell even before raising their weapons. Team one and two proceeded toward the door while team three watched their rear from any unwanted visitors. Team one opened the door and they were immediately greeted with several plasma bolts flaying in their direction. The guards inside had heard the weapons fire and were ready. Ready or not they didn't stand a chance. Three grenades flew in the room and the guards inside were all killed by the blasts except for one that was dispatched shortly after by one of the marines. Only the Goa'uld in charge remained unharmed, protected by his personal shield. The marines poured in with weapons trained at the Goa'uld.

The Goa'uld didn't look very happy. "_**Who dares to defy their god?**_"

Sargent Jenkins walked into the room looking at the poor bastard. He really didn't have time for speeches. He took his knife and threw it at him without hesitation. The knife went through the shield, hitting the man straight in the chest. The shield didn't work very well with relatively slow moving objects. Stunned and very much hurt, The Goa'uld dropped his shield and a few short bursts from the marines ended his miserable life.

Jenkins looked around the room making sure all guards were dead before turning to his men, "Team one and two, secure the room and find any communication device in here. Team three, watch the hall."

Jenkins activated his radio and reported his success and shortly after, he received new orders and his squad moved out of the room.

Outside the main building, a much larger firefight was taking place. Almost fifty Jaffa were pinned down at the entrance from both sides, but they weren't even close to giving up. They were pinned between the platoon that beamed in the courtyard and the one inside the building. Thankfully, the marines in the courtyard didn't have to worry about Jaffa reinforcements coming into the city. Bra'tac and his two hundreds fellow Jaffas were doing a great job at stopping anyone stupid enough to try it.

The marines threw a dozen grenades followed by as much flash-bangs at the group of pinned Jaffa. A coordinated attack from both sides quickly ended their struggle. The capital of Dakara was theirs.

Now that the gate was secured, they connected to the SGC in order to receive more troops. General O'Neill and Colonel Anderson, US Army stepped through the gate. Anderson was awestruck. Only days ago he didn't know anything about aliens and other populated worlds, and now, he was here to defend this planet against some parasite with a god complex. Behind him, an entire battalion started pouring out of the gate. Combat engineers were the first to come through. They were going to assess the situation and decide how best to fortify the city. The good thing was, they'd have at least three days to prepare their defenses, the time the closest Baal's ships can reach Dakara and, with a little luck, Baal still didn't know Dakara had been taken.

The Prometheus went to work, beaming down APCs, tanks, artillery and construction machinery from the Ha'taks in orbit. In the meantime, the combat engineers started digging up holes outside the capital where the three massive cannons would be placed. Defending Dakara wasn't going to be easy, but it wasn't impossible. Dakara was a desert planet. Definitely not the typical planet you'd go for a vacation and that was something Jack understood the same moment he stepped through the gate, but he also knew that, except for maybe a few places, the planet's barren landscape would actually work in their favor. Such a planet would make an assault made by infantry much more difficult, especially after placing trenches and other defenses. The Jaffas who were entirely made of infantry would have a difficult time approaching the Capital of Dakara. Of course, all this would be meaningless if the cannons couldn't do what they were supposed to and that was to stop any ship approaching the sky above them.

It had been an exhausting three day, which Jack mostly spent on the planet making sure everything went as it should. He admired Colonel Anderson, a no nonsense kind of guy. He knew what was at stake, no matter that only a week ago he didn't know anything about the state of the galaxy. He put his stupor aside and pushed the combat engineers and the rest of his battalion to their limits until he was satisfied that everything was ready. And it wasn't a moment too soon. Baal found out what happened and his closest ships were now only minutes away. Bra'tac received word from loyal Jaffa that at least a dozen ships were coming.

Baal's fleet was approaching the six ships in orbit above the capital city. To the approaching enemy ships it didn't appear strange that instead of attacking them the ships were slowly retreating. They thought they were afraid, scarred as they should be when facing their god's mighty fleet. What they didn't know was that they were entering the weapons range of the cannons on the ground. The commander of the leading Ha'tak knew something was wrong when he saw three massive balls of plasma coming from the planet. It was the last thing he would ever see.

Two plasma bolts slammed into the leading Ha'tak vessel, shields overloading in microseconds, the ship's hull following the same fate and breaking apart, unable to withstand the massive amount of energy thrown at it. The second Ha'tak was hit by the third plasma bolt, receiving a crippling amount of damage and with their shields completely disabled. Realizing what the real threat was, Baal's fleet changed course toward the planet.

The five Ha'taks and the Prometheus changed course as well, now moving toward the enemy. Their tactic had worked. They knew the enemy ships would go after them, not caring about the planet and anything that could be on it, and now the enemy ships were between two fires. They opened fire at the same time as another round of bolts came rushing from the surface, destroying the one already damaged ship as well as another one. Baal's fleet in response fired on the three cannons on the ground with everything they had.

Jack watched as the rain of plasma bolts descended from the sky toward the three cannons outside the city. Instead of hitting the cannons, the plasma bolts slammed into massive orange shields that were protecting them. He hoped the shields would hold; they weren't of Asgard design after all so he couldn't be sure. They'd tried to place Asgard shield generators, but they would collapse when they couldn't form a complete sphere as they usually would around a ship. It was a problem the people at area 51 didn't know how to solve, probably because this wasn't their technology and nobody understood it. Thankfully, the first version of shields developed for the Prometheus worked like a charm, except for the fact that it was much weaker. Three new bolts of plasma flew upwards into the sky and Jack smiled at the sight.

The enemy finally realized things weren't going as they thought they would. The remaining five ships began a hasty retreat outside the weapons range of the cannons, but stubborn as Jaffas usually were, they'd decided to launch their gliders as a last attempt to inflict damage. They poured out of the larger ships and turned toward the planet, while the Alliance's ships still focused their attack on the capital ships. It was strange and they should have noticed it. No fighter had been launched in an attempt to try and stop them from reaching the planet. They should have wondered why. A hundred gliders entered the planet's atmosphere and were first welcomed by a barrage of SAMs taking down almost fifty of them. The remaining fifty gliders proceeded further, even more enraged by the enemy's audacity. They soon found out what a couple of dozen railguns placed at various points on the ground can do to gliders. They tried to evade the incoming fire, but it was coming from everywhere. Gliders started exploding one after the other and after only two minutes there were no more gliders in the sky.

The reason why nobody chased them was simple. The missiles and the people manning the railguns would have had a difficult time discerning friends from foes, especially if they'd sent their own gliders that looked the same. Also the gliders weren't very good at ground targets. Having only the two static plasma cannons at their disposal made the whole thing an almost one sided battle with only one SAM installation destroyed and two unlucky soldiers being injured from a few flying pieces of metal.

The six alliance ships continued chasing the fleeing enemy until they entered hyperspace. All two thousand Jaffa cheered and celebrated their success at protecting their new capital from Baal's fleet. Bra'tac sent immediately a dozen Jaffa to spread the word of their success on other planets. There's a big problem when you rule your people by pretending to be a god. Your people will follow as long as they believe you are what you claim to be, but when normal mortals win against someone that should have godlike powers, questions are inevitably raised. Questions like how mere mortals could possibly win against a god by taking their most sacred planet and then even preventing a god to take the planet back. The rational mind can only come to the conclusion that the Goa'ulds are in fact not gods. Bra'tac firmly believed that this victory would turn many Jaffa against them. Now they only needed to spread the word and wait for the results.

The next five days were completely uneventful. There was little or nothing to do except to sit and wait to see what Baal's response would be. The answer came the sixth day in the form of a dozen Ha'tak and thirty Al'kesh. As they'd predicted, Baal didn't intend to use them to attack Dakara. Instead, they were mere transports for the troops. While the twelve capital ships took orbit above the planet, somewhere outside the weapons' range, the Al'kesh ferried troops on the ground below and when they were done, more than twenty thousand Jaffa warriors were preparing to assault the capital.

Colonel Anderson watched as five thousand Jaffa were amassing only a kilometer west from their defenses. He wasn't sure if he should be happy or if he should pity the enemy. Saying that they were using a Napoleonic style of fighting would be insulting for the guy that had used it more than two hundred years ago. The Jaffa were forming an old style phalanx that would march toward their defenses. Anderson sighed at the thought of so many lives that will soon be extinguished.

Maroc inspected his troops before the attack. His troops were finally ready to march toward the enemy shol'va that dared attack their capital. He will rightfully kill every last one of them for what they have done. No one defies his god and lives to tell stories about it. He took his horn to sound to his troops it was time to attack and for his trouble he got a .50 caliber in his chest. Blood gushed from his body, spraying the Jaffa in the first row. The troops didn't know what happened to their leader that hit the ground with a large hole in his chest only moments later. Their confusion grew larger when they heard a whistling sound coming from the sky. Anti-personnel shells exploded everywhere around them sending hundreds of shrapnel in all directions. Jaffa were dying everywhere as shell after shell exploded. It was 'Hell on Dakara' for the five thousand Jaffa amassed in such a small space. Everywhere any of them looked, the only thing they could see was torn bodies and death, death by the thousands. Those that were still alive soon realized the only thing they could do was to flee the rain of death that was killing so many. They scattered in all directions knowing that everywhere would be better than here. That wasn't true for the five hundred Jaffa that decided to go east toward the enemy front line.

Colonel Anderson took to his heart when O'Neill told him that the enemy would attack with only infantry. As a result, he placed at least one heavy machine gun with every squad. Thirty machine guns and countless rifles from Bravo Company opened fire at once, cutting down the unfortunate five hundred Jaffas who were running towards them. The entire fight lasted less than fifteen minutes and to Anderson it felt very anticlimactic to say the least. The first engagement ended with almost three thousand Jaffa dead and zero casualties on his side.

'_If the Jaffas keep up like this, I can defend this place for as long as soldiers have bullets to fire, and those we have a lot' _Anderson thought to himself.

The Jaffa understood that as well, immediately stopping the attack they were preparing on the north side of the city before the same thing could happen there. It took them two days to realize that the south side was the only approach vector with some cover that could be exploited. The next night they sent a few hundred Jaffa to try and sneak in while taking advantage of the terrain that provided some cover. Though, they didn't know the Tau'ri had infrared and night vision at their disposal. Flares in the sky turned night into day and the two hundred Jaffa were soon dying from machine gun fire or fleeing back from where they came from.

The fighting continued for the next few weeks and in that time the Jaffa had lost more than fifteen thousand people. But the fight wasn't one-sided any more. New Jaffas were being transported to the planet every day, and now they were using Kull warriors as well. The artillery was useless against them. Only the disruptor weapon or concentrated fire from the 50 caliber machine guns was able to stop those monstrosities. The Jaffas were also getting smarter. They knew attacking en masse was suicide because of the artillery, so they used smaller units attacking from several directions, making the artillery work with much less efficiency. The alliance didn't have the losses the enemy had, but one entire company of soldiers had been killed or injured as well as more than five hundred Jaffa in all the various skirmishes they had in the last two weeks and, with the never-ending stream of enemy soldiers coming every day, the situation was grim.

Then, suddenly things changed. The enemy began attacking more intensely with larger and larger units, uncaring for the higher losses the artillery was inflicting on them. It was as if they'd forgotten everything that they'd learned in the past few weeks. The answer why this was happening came from Bra'tac. He received word that Ba'al and the System Lords were losing support from Jaffas everywhere in the galaxy. Ba'al needed to win this fast and prove to the Jaffa that the Goa'ulds were in fact their gods.

The enemy was preparing for a massive attack by more than fifteen thousand soldiers. To make things worse Ba'al decided he would send the thirty Al'kesh and more than five hundred gliders to support their troops. Every platoon leader was asking for more artillery support, but there wasn't enough to go around.

Jack and Anderson watched as five hundred gliders and thirty Al'kesh began their approach toward the front line.

"We are sending every glider and F-302 we have, but we are outnumbered three to one here." Jack said to Anderson.

Anderson was concerned, "Our air defenses will have a difficult time picking up enemy fighters from ours once the two fleets merge."

"I know but our defenses won't be enough to stop so many fighters on their own. We have no choice."

Walter came from behind the General. "Sir, Pendergast says Baal's fleet is moving toward them. He's asking what his orders are."

Jack turned to Walter, "Tell him to use the same tactic as last time. Let's hope it works."

Walter nodded and went away.

Anderson was looking through his binoculars the approaching enemy fleet, "Here they come. Wait… what is that?"

Jack watched through his binocular as two ships, much larger than an Al'kesh, declocked on the left side of the approaching enemy fleet, going straight for the enemy, "The Defiant? Two of them?"

Anderson didn't know anything about the Star Trek series so he was utterly confused by Jack's questions, but decided it was better not to ask. He knew O'Neill was strange at times.

The two corvettes fired from their forward pulse cannons cutting down everything in front of them. Al'kesh and gliders exploded one after the other. The corvettes went straight through the enemy formation where a few gliders, unable to change course in time, slammed into their shields and exploded on impact. The corvettes were turning back, but before making the full turn they unleashed half a dozen missiles above the enemy troops that were reaching the front line. Massive plasma explosions burned everything on the ground in a half kilometer radius where the bombs touched the ground.

Anderson watched as the two corvettes flipped by ninety degrees on their horizontal axis and performed a tight turn back towards the enemy fleet. "I'm not a pilot Jack, but those two ships make turns more like fighters than ships of similar size."

"Yeah, I'd really like to get my hands on one of those," Jack replied while still watching the ships in the distance.

The second pass through the enemy formation threw the enemy in complete disarray, with a large portion deciding to chase the two ships while the rest continued on their previous course.

SAMs flew in the air followed by railgun fire while the F-302s and gliders attacked the enemy formation from above. The enemy gliders turned upward toward the incoming fighters while the Al'kesh continued to fire on the defenders on the ground. Complete chaos was assured when the cannons began firing at the approaching enemy ships in orbit and those in turn started raining plasma back on the ground. For the first time Jack thought it would have been better if he stayed in his office back at the SGC. He was definitely becoming too old for this.

The situation wasn't good at all, but it would have been much worse if they didn't have a backup plan. Bra'tac's plan came to fruition a week ago when Gerak, a First Prime, heard Dakara had been taken by the Jaffa Rebellion and rebelled against his god. He and a group of loyal Jaffa took half a dozen Ha'taks with them. Jack and Bra'tac knew that even with Gerak forces they couldn't attack the twenty capital ships Baal had amassed above Dakara so they came up with a plan to hide the ships nearby and use them in a surprise attack only if Baal decided to attack first.

While Baal's fleet was targeting the ground cannons and the six alliance ships in orbit, behind them, seven hyperspace windows opened and six Ha'taks and one Daedalus, who had returned from the Pegasus galaxy, came through. Baal still had more ships than what the Jaffa rebellion and the Tau'ri had, but they were being attacked by three sides at the same time with the massive cannons on the ground inflicting incredible damage every time they fired. The fight was brutal with everyone putting everything they had into the fight. The same was happening on the ground. On one point the frontline had been breached, soldiers retreating at the second line of defense while gliders were flying overhead. They didn't even know if the gliders would attack them or protect them. They all looked the same. Fortunately the Tau'ri knew this could happen so they've installed tracking devices on all friendly gliders. The F-302a used this to target the enemy fighters rather than their own allies, but the railguns weren't getting the information soon enough to know who was who. In the meantime, the two _'Defiant'_, as Jack called them, were having a field day. They were the only ships with shields in the firefight and they used this advantage to wreak havoc among the enemy fighters and bombers.

The turning point came when the enemy lost the battle in orbit. The enemy ships were now in minority and the Prometheus decided to descend into the atmosphere to lay a hand there. The ship hovered above the Capital providing cover and by attacking any glider foolish enough to enter his weapons range while the enemy fighters didn't have the firepower to weaken his Asgard shields. Soon, the Ha'taks in orbit were destroyed, followed shortly after by the destruction of the enemy fighters and bombers. With no support from the skies, the Jaffa on the ground began to retreat without knowing there was no Ha'tak in orbit to pick them up. The alliance won the war and this time Baal would not be coming back.

Dakara was now free from the Goa'uld oppression, but it didn't happen without a cost. Half of Anderson's battalion and more than a thousand Jaffa had perished in the battle on the ground and four Ha'taks were destroyed in orbit. Still a victory was a victory and everybody knew sacrifices were inevitable. They were already celebrating when the Stargate opened and Baal's hologram appeared in front of it.

Even though Baal had a smile on his face, as the battle he'd lost was of no importance to him, Jack knew he was angry as hell. He decided to pour more salt to the wound. "Hello Bocce, how are things going?" Jack asked with a grin on his face.

Baal stopped smiling, "O'Neill, you think you have accomplished a great victory today, but you must know that in the end you cannot win against a god."

"I don't know Bocce, I think we did a pretty good job today."

Baal grinned, "Perhaps O'Neill, but you made a grave mistake."

Jack didn't know what Baal meant, but his grin told him he wasn't bluffing, "Sorry, nothing comes to mind."

Baal chuckled, "You have forgotten about Earth O'Neill. You left it undefended."

'_What is he talking about?' _Jack was concerned, "You know very well Earth is protected by the Ancient weapon. I don't think you have anything that can beat that."

"You are right O'Neill, you have a very powerful weapon, but the thing is, the weapon is useless without a ZPM and a _bird_ told me you are using it to connect to Atlantis. Without the two ships here you don't have the means to beam the power source in time." Baal laughed hard, "Tell me O'Neill, how much time it will take to transfer the ZPM to Antarctica, an hour, two hours…"

Jack looked as Baal vanished and the gate closed, "Dial the SGC, NOW!"

* * *

**Earth's orbit**

Two Ha'taks exited hyperspace close to Earth. It didn't take them long to enter geosynchronous orbit above the American and Eurasian continent. Without waiting a minute longer the two ships began their bombardment of the planet, targeting larger cities first.

Baal thought it would be at least an hour before they could power the Ancient weapon and it would have been if Liam didn't have satellites monitoring the galaxy. When Liam realized that two Ha'taks were on their way toward Earth, he sent a message to them, informing them of their predicament. He'd sent the cruiser he had in the Milky Way galaxy as well, but he knew it wouldn't reach Earth in time.

Only minutes later, the Ancient weapon fired a stream of drones toward the two Ha'taks in orbit, the drones swirling around and through the two ships until they both exploded. The two Ha'taks were destroyed, but the damage had already been done. Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Sacramento were hit hard as well as Paris, Munich, Rome, Bombay, Shanghai and Tokyo. The destruction was massive with millions of dead and even more injured or lost. A new era was about to begin on Earth and if Baal knew what the consequences of his attack would have been, he would have thought a little harder and he would probably have decided against it.


	2. Chapter 2: Aftermath

**Author's note: **

This is the second chapter in the story. Just a short one explaining what happened after Earth was attacked by Baal.

Thank you for the nice reviews. Knowing that people like the story, it makes writing that much easier.

* * *

**Earth**

O'Neill watched from the command center as the gate opened and one of his teams came through. He was still getting used to all the changes that had followed the attack on Earth. The first few weeks had been the worst. Leaders trying to explain to their people what happened, not only in the attack, but also in the last ten years since the stargate had been unearthed. People on the other hand were scared, angry and also hurt by how their leaders had hidden the truth from them for so long. It wasn't unexpected though. Everybody knew the release of such revelation wouldn't go smoothly, but the fact that it came out in such a terrible moment it made all the explaining much more difficult. People wanted answers and more importantly somebody to blame for what happened. They also wanted revenge.

More than twenty million souls had been lost in the attack, and it was simply too much for the people of Earth to continue their lives as if nothing had happened. There was almost no one on the planet that didn't lose a loved one, a friend or at least an acquaintance. As a direct result, in most countries the government had to instate martial law as the only measure to quell the massive civil unrests. The economy took a hit as well, with the market crashing down and investors pulling their money out, fearing investments were too risky as nobody could even try to hint what tomorrow would bring. The worse was that millions of people had died in the attack and the public blamed their leaders for it. Countries that hadn't been informed of the existence of the Stargate program were making things even worse by threatening sanctions in one way or another. The leaders of the countries that _did_ know about the program, and especially the US, were in a difficult position as the one who the rest of the world blamed the most. Their biggest problem was that even they weren't a united front. China was asking for more control over the program, saying the US did a crappy job at protecting the planet, while Russia played the neutrality card without committing to anything or anyone. Europe was mostly on the side of the US, even though they didn't like having their military running the show. The I.O.A, as most bureaucratic entities was silent, not wanting to take responsibilities for what happened while also accusing the military for screwing up without them knowing. They had to do something or things would escalate even more.

The first thing they had to do was to calm people down. They didn't know how so instead, they decided to redirect the public's anger toward somebody else instead of them. Baal soon became the poster boy on every most wanted list on the planet. Baal was responsible for what happened on Earth and why not redirect so much anger towards him then. They also needed to show the people all the good the Stargate program had done in these ten years and to do so, they needed a hero. So they created one, but he wasn't too happy about it. Actually, he was horrified by the idea.

A former special ops Colonel, with his entire professional life hidden from the public, really didn't like to have his entire life put onto public display. Of course, the by now two stars general was described to the public as a true hero who had saved the planet countless times and as a man who made many friends with other races in the galaxy and beyond. General O'Neill was praised so much that Kinsey got himself a stroke, ending up in the hospital barely alive. O'Neill was also the person supposed to take down the most hated being on the planet if not the entire galaxy. Something he gratefully accepted as one of the few duties he actually liked to be charged with. If Baal had known what kind of monster he would have created by attacking Earth, he most definitely would have thought about it a little more and probably he would have decided it was a really bad idea.

One thing the leaders didn't count on when they'd chosen O'Neill as their designated hero was on how popular or influential he would eventually become. The public loved him, the Asgard loved him, Nox, Jaffa and many other races all loved him. He was becoming the most powerful man on the planet and galaxy at large, and the leaders didn't like it. Politics had always been and always would be about power and having such a powerful person meant others had less power to share, but the problem was they didn't know what to do about it. They still needed the hero image to sell to the public and it was too late to back down.

Another person didn't like all this and that was Jack. He didn't like being popular, going around the planet on conferences or talk shows. He wanted to do his job of catching bad guys, explore the galaxy and nothing more. O'Neill wanted things to change, but he as well didn't know how to accomplish that.

After months of struggle the public had started to slowly come to their senses as life had to go on no matter if they wanted it or not. With less civil unrest and more support for the fight against Baal the situation started to stabilize itself, but there were still many problems that needed to be solved. Many countries demanded changes in how the Stargate program was being run. Most countries believed such a program should be international, while others believed it should be run by them. Some believed it should be a civilian operation, while others still believed it should be run by them. In the end, no two countries were on the same page on what should and shouldn't be done and, as a result, tensions were rising fast. Thankfully, the answer came one morning on Jack's doorsteps.

Jack heard the doorbell ring several times. This was his first day home after almost a month of traveling around the globe and he really didn't want to answer, no matter who it was. After another minute or two of constant ringing, he gave up, deciding to see who was so persistent. He opened the door and saw a man in his forties with short black hair and brown eyes standing in front of him in some strange white robes. The man's demeanor and clothing told Jack this man was very different from the average earthling.

Liam sighed at O'Neill, "Finally, I almost gave up."

"That was the point," Jack snapped back.

"Sorry, too important. I'm Liam by the way, can I come in?"

Jack measured the man up and down, "Why?"

"To discuss the future of this planet," Liam answered simply.

"Oy," Jack grumbled. He was becoming used to strange visits usually involving some crisis or at least something that would usually put his life in peril, but that didn't mean he liked it. Jack waved to the man, signaling to come inside.

They sat in the living room looking at each other for a long time before Jack broke the silence, "Let me guess, you are not from Earth."

"Correct," Liam answered.

"And you have something to do with the data we have received with all the upgrades, also warning us of Baal's ships coming to Earth."

"Correct again. I'm also responsible for helping Atlantis on a few occasions as well as in the final battle on Dakara," Liam continued.

Jack was very curious to find who this man was. He also didn't know what he wanted or why he was here. "Who are you exactly?"

Liam smiled, "I'll tell you, but under one condition. This has to stay between us."

"Why?"

"Because I want my identity to stay secret in this galaxy and I know that it would be impossible if you tell your leaders about me. You have more security breaches on this planet than Swiss cheese has holes. Did you find out how Baal knew where your ZPM was before he attacked your planet?" It was a rhetorical question.

Jack knew it was true. Baal had information that was classified at the highest levels. "Alright, let's hear it."

Liam took a deep breath preparing to tell his story. "As you already know my name is Liam and I am the one that helped you on many occasions. What you don't know is that I'm Alterra." Liam paused before continuing, "More than ten thousand years ago…"

In the next fifteen minutes, Liam told Jack everything he thought important. He wasn't sure if Jack believed him, but he thought how it wasn't very important anyway. The important thing was for Jack to accept his proposal.

Jack listened to the story and now the only question he had was… "So, why are you here now?"

Liam gave a data pad to Jack, "Read it."

Jack took the data pad that contained the document. The small number at the bottom was showing the document had more than thirty pages, "Do you have a shorter version?"

Liam grinned, "This _is_ the shorter version."

Jack frowned and reluctantly began reading the document from top to bottom. From time to time he would stop reading and look at Liam with a puzzling expression, only to continue without saying anything. Forty minutes later Jack finished reading the entire document. "Are you nuts? How the hell do you think I can pull this off?"

Liam sighed, "I didn't say it would be easy."

"Ya think?" Jack was pissed for many reasons. "For crying out loud, they will charge me for treason if I try to pull something like this!"

Liam shook his head, "Now-now, let's not be so dramatic. First of all this is only a proposal, they won't charge you for that, and second, you don't give yourself enough credit."

"Credit… credit for what?"

"You are a two star General, a public hero and the man who made a lot of friends out there. You are underestimating your power. I can also guarantee you'll have the support of the Asgard and Nox in this… and mine of course."

Jack frowned, "But you still don't want me to tell anyone about you. How the hell I'm supposed to explain this without involving you?"

"Well, I thought you can say that you and Daniel worked on this. You can say that you two found some reference in Atlantis on how my race did things."

"_Is_ there a reference in Atlantis' database?"

Liam nodded, "Yes, I can even tell you where to find the relevant documents in there."

Jack was pacing up and down while thinking about what to do. The worst part was that he liked the idea in general and he thought most countries would sign it. The problem was _his_ country wouldn't be too happy about it. Jack asked several more questions, which Liam answered calmly. The proposal was more and more sound as more answers were given. After half an hour of discussion Liam departed, leaving Jack to pace a little more before deciding to call Daniel and see what he thinks.

Daniel came half an hour later, wanting to know what was more important than his work that he had to leave immediately. He knew Jack didn't think much of his work, so it could have been anything. Jack gave Daniel the data pad with the document and Daniel began reading it. Daniel soon noted it was short for what it contained so Jack gave him the three hundred pages full version. Jack still didn't know how Liam knew about his aversion toward long documents or reports.

It was a long afternoon and Jack was already preparing something to eat for dinner when Daniel finished reading.

Daniel took his glasses off. "Wow, this is big."

"I know," Jack replied simply.

"And you say you got this from…" Daniel was fishing.

"I didn't."

"Jack."

"Daniel."

"Jack come on you can't…"

"Daniel, I've told you I can't tell you… I promised." Jack was frustrated. He saw the puppy expression Daniel had put on and decided to give him a bone, "Let's just say that a very old man came here and gave it to me."

Daniel was frustrated by the cryptic answer, "A very old man?"

"Yes Daniel, a _very_ old man. We can say it was almost _ancient_ how old it was."

"Oh… OH!" Daniel's eyes grew larger, realizing what he meant.

"Exactly. Don't ask me anything else alright," Jack paused while bringing the two plates in the living room. "So, what do you think? Can we pull this off?"

Daniel nodded uncertain, "Yeah, if we manage to gate to Atlantis and _accidently _find those documents you mentioned."

Jack sighed, "And you think this is a good thing right?"

"Of that I'm sure. I just don't know how others would feel about it."

Jack nodded sharing the same concern, "Ok let's find a reason for us or at least for you to go to Atlantis."

In the end it wasn't that difficult to find a reason for the trip. Daniel had been asking to go there for some time now and Jack was in command of the SGC anyway and with two ZPMs in their possession, traveling wouldn't be a problem. They went to Atlantis and among other things Daniel _'accidentally' _found documents pertinent to the matter. They gated back a few days later and pretended to work on the proposal for the next three weeks. They wanted to make sure everything looked plausible before coming out with the proposal. The proposal was given the next day, signed by Daniel and with O'Neill fully supporting the proposal.

The document made quite the steer among the leaders of the countries who were involved. Most countries agreed to it at least in principle except for the US and China, both wanting to have full control over the Stargate. The idea was simple. A new organization would be formed that instead of being under someone's control, would be independent, comprised of a Council made of by people directly involved in the program. The idea was that Earth would be represented by this organization for any and all matters that concerned the planet as a whole. They would represent Earth in the galaxy and beyond. On the other hand, this organization wouldn't have any saying in the affairs on the planet. Disputes, politics and even wars between countries were outside the sphere of influence of the organization and they could not interfere even if they wanted to. There would also be representatives from all countries involved, but they wouldn't be involved in everyday decisions. The representatives and the Council would have a vote on regulations regarding the new organization, but the representatives could not outvote the entire Council. The representatives would be there mor as a gap between the organization and the rest of the planet. All the acquired or developed new technologies would be under their control and the Council and representatives would decide what kind of technology they should or shouldn't _'sell'_ to the various countries on the planet that would sign the treaty. This is how the organization would finance itself and how technology would slowly spread to the entire planet. They would have their own military assets like ships and troops that in no circumstances can be used in conflicts between countries on the planet. One of the most important things of the proposal was also the location where this organization would be. It had to be somewhere neutral and for that reason it was proposed to place it somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

The decision-making process was slow and took almost a month. In that time, the Asgard and the Nox came to speak to Earth's leaders as Liam promised. They fully supported the idea of such an entity that would represent Earth as a whole instead of dealing with separate countries. The Asgard even promised to help construct the artificial island as a token of their friendship and appreciation for everything Earth had done for them in the past. In the end, the leaders came to an agreement and the Terran Alliance was officially formed.

The Asgard came with a dozen ships and started building the island. It took a lot of material to build such a thing, but the beaming technology the Asgard had, made things easier. The island was almost twenty miles in diameter and it took more than six months to build it even with their help. In the meantime, the council had been chosen based on the responsibilities the members would have inside the organization. Jack wasn't happy to be taken as the presiding council member as well as in charge of the Terran military forces. The only positive aspect was that he wasn't going to be alone in there. Sam was the council member responsible for Research & Development and Daniel was there as the Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs. They thought it would be Weir, but she was adamant on staying on Atlantis. Other countries got their members in the Council as well even though they didn't have any prior work with the Stargate program. It was a small concession they had to concede because the other countries wanted their own people there, but they were chosen by Jack, Sam and Daniel and they made sure the right people got the job. The only thing Jack didn't particularly like was the representatives being mostly comprised of prior members of the IOA, but it was out of his hands to decide who would be elected as a member.

The terrible attack had happened almost a year ago and Jack was standing in the new control room that had a touch of Asgard and Alterran design in it. He thought about the last year and the events that transpired not only on Earth, but in the rest of the universe as well. The Milky Way galaxy changed a lot. The Jaffas were finally a nation. They called themselves the Free Jaffa Nation (FJN) and they were led by Gerak, with Bra'tac and Teal'c also in the Council. The past year had been difficult for the Jaffa, as they'd soon realized how difficult it is to build a nation after so many years of slavery. In several areas the Jaffas lacked what the Goa'uld had purposely hidden from them. There was no Jaffa who fully knew how the technology they used worked or even how to learn more about it. There were no doctors, engineers or even simple workers in the new FJN because the workers on farms or mines had mostly been human slaves and the engineers and scientists had always been Goa'uld. Now they had to learn how to do all that for themselves and it wasn't easy. Teal'c and Jack worked hard to try and improve the situation by sending experts and teachers, but their plan wasn't well received. The Jaffas wanted to be warriors and nothing else. Being a farmer or even an engineer or doctor, would always be second to being a warrior. Jack regretfully realized Gerak wasn't the right man to lead the newly formed Jaffa nation. He was a stubborn man, set in the old ways and without any real knowledge on how to run a nation. When Jack had found out that Teal'c or Bra'tac wouldn't be the one to lead the Jaffa into a new era, he almost got a stroke. Initially he couldn't understand why they hadn't been chosen to lead, but he soon found out that the number of ships a Jaffa has is more important than knowing how to lead. Gerak currently had the mightiest fleet and regretfully that meant he would be the one to lead the Jaffa.

Although not too happy the Jaffa were primarily a warrior race, there was at least one good side to that. As warriors, they were doing a pretty good job at hunting down the remaining Goa'ulds around the galaxy. After Baal's final defeat on Dakara, the Goa'ulds ended in complete disarray, losing more Jaffas each day and, although not yet defeated, their dominance of the galaxy was coming to an abrupt end. Baal was still alive, scheming and plotting everywhere he could and he quickly managed to end his war with the System Lords end form an alliance in order to at least retain the power they still had. They were now a united front against the FJN and Earth, but even together they weren't strong enough to be a serious threat to them. The Asgard were also on the rise and with the replicators and the disease gone, they were growing in numbers and strength. The System Lords couldn't compete with the three races, so the only thing they could do was to flee and try to hide somewhere in the galaxy where they could start to rebuild their empire again.

The Milky Way galaxy finally saw some peace after so long, completely opposite to the current state of the Pegasus galaxy. The Wraith were in full swing and no one had the strength to oppose them. Earth had only the Daedalus there and the ship had to make a lot of trips back and forth to supply Atlantis with everything that couldn't fit through the gate. Atlantis had also grown considerably in the past year. There were almost five thousand people working there and the amount of knowledge they were learning each day was staggering.

Sam walked toward Jack, "So, what do you think?"

"It looks great," Jack replied with a pensive expression on his face.

Sam picked up immediately, "What's wrong?"

Jack turned to face Sam, "Nothing is wrong, everything looks perfect."

"So why the expression?"

O'Neill sighed, "I was planning on retiring you know and now I'm stuck here."

It was a known fact that Jack wanted to retire and the reasons behind that decision, but now he was a member of the Council and how things looked, it would be that way for a long time.

"I know," Sam replied, "but we are not in the military anymore, at least not the same way as before," Sam stopped for one moment, "Wait… what does is says about ranks and regulations in the proposal."

"How should I know ?"

"You wrote the damn thing, that's how!"

Jack was pissed, "I've been accused of many things, but never of writing a three hundred pages long proposal."

"Fine, Daniel wrote it and you were there while he did it." Sam said angrily, but immediately saw Jack turning to look elsewhere. "You did read it did you?"

Jack fiddled with his fingers, "Just the short version."

"Jack, you proposed the damn thing. How could you do it without reading it?"

"Because it's THREE HUNDRED PAGES!" Jack stated angrily as it was a good explanation for not reading it.

While they were discussing things, Daniel walked toward them, "What's going on?"

Sam turned toward Daniel, "He didn't read the proposal!"

Daniel blinked twice before pushing his glasses back with his finger, "You thought he would?"

Sam thought about it for a moment before dropping her shoulders in resignation, "I hoped."

Jack looked at Sam, "Wait a minute. How is it that YOU don't know the ranking system? If you read the proposal you should know that."

Sam face turned into bright red, "I don't know. I must have missed it somehow."

Jack grinned happy he wasn't the only one, but it didn't last long. Daniel was the one to clarify things, "Sam, you didn't miss it. It isn't part of the proposal. Details such as this one were resolved later and put in a separate document." Daniel paused before continuing with a more critical tone, "Something the two of you, as members of the council, should very well know, even at this stage."

Jack and Sam looked like two kids caught stealing a pack of gum. Daniel thought about how things changed in the last year, but also knowing that other would always remain the same. Sam and Jack promised they would read the damn documents and he knew Sam would. He wasn't sure about Jack though.

The Terran Alliance was growing with more and more people coming from all countries and the second stage was about to start soon. Colonization was one of the things they had to do and soon. Earth was overcrowded, everybody knew that, but that wasn't the only reason. The planet didn't have the precious materials like Naquadah or Trinium and colonizing a planet with such resources was paramount and it would also ensure that the new colony could finance itself in the long run. The process involved in the selection of people who was going to colonize other planets was long and tedious. Everyone who wanted to become a member needed to pass a detailed scrutiny. The greatest fear was that Baal or some country wanted to plant a spy or saboteur in their midst. They still didn't know how Baal knew where the ZPM was and that troubled them. Isolation from the rest of the world, as well as constant security checks were the only thing they could do for now. They hoped it would be enough.

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Eden Prime**

Millions of light years away, the Guardian's Order had grown as well. After a year and a half since Liam woke up from his long sleep, there were almost a hundred thousand active members in the Order. Liam had worked very hard in the last six months, completing several projects he deemed important. What troubled Liam the most was the current situation in the Andromeda galaxy. The enemy race known as the Senari had reached the region of space where Liam set base. The worst part was that he was still unable to communicate with them. A month ago a Senari scout ship had traveled to a planet only five hundred light years from Eden Prime and Liam had a cruiser there patrolling the system. The scout ship was less than half the size of their cruiser, but that didn't stop them from firing at the larger ship. The commander repeatedly tried to contact the alien ship but to no avail. In the end, the captain had to open fire at the ship, eventually destroying it. Even when the ship was losing its shields they kept firing, something that told Liam peaceful contact would be almost impossible. He decided it was time to send a few ships on a mission to capture a Senari ship and his crew to learn more about them. What happened there troubled Liam even more. The Senari crew fought as he believed they would, but he didn't count on prisoners committing suicide rather than answering a few questions. Afterward, the autopsy on their corpses had shown how every member of the crew had some kind of neural implant. Once captured, the implant would fry the subject's brain almost instantly. Why would a race use such a device was beyond Liam's ability to comprehend. Another problem was that he couldn't pinpoint their planet or base of origin. The few satellites Liam had in the Andromeda galaxy would pick up hyperspace events when they were close enough, but investigation of planets where Liam thought they could be coming from had been fruitless. All planets in their path were devoid of life and Liam was beginning to suspect this was the reason why the Andromeda galaxy didn't have any advanced races ten thousand years ago. It looked like the cycle of destruction was beginning again and if things didn't change, history would most certainly repeat itself.

All this made Liam spend more and more of his precious time in the Andromeda galaxy with consequences in the other two. If it wasn't for this new enemy, he would have sent more ships and troops in the Pegasus galaxy to fight the Wraith. At least the Milky Way galaxy was mostly at peace, with the Goa'uld hiding in some corner of the galaxy and the Jaffa and Terrans doing a pretty good job at keeping it that way. Still, there were a few things that troubled Liam even there. The biggest problem were the Jaffa with a very young and instable nation. Liam knew they were warriors and that they valued being warriors more than anything else, but a nation cannot live with only warriors in it. He was pissed at them for thwarting most efforts made by the Terrans who were trying to help them learn and change into a modern and strong society. The Jaffa hardliners were adamant in keeping the Jaffa tradition as it was. Why would somebody want to keep something that helped enslave them for thousands of years, was beyond Liam's understanding.

The Lucian Alliance was another problem that troubled Liam. A band of thieves with warships at their disposal was a recipe for trouble on a galactic scale. Even with his satellite grid, it was difficult to track them all and at all times. The subspace signature an opening hyperspace window would emit was the same for all Ha'taks, making it impossible to know whose ship it was. Furthermore, Liam had gaps in the satellite grid that was millions of years old. With many satellites damaged or disabled after so much time, he had to rely on the Terrans more and more to safeguard the galaxy and hope there would be peace, at least until he could grow stronger.


	3. Chapter 3: Making Friends and Foes

**Prometheus – en route to P2X-416**

Pendergast was sitting in his chair on the bridge of his ship, the Prometheus, contemplating the meaning of life or better yet the lack of it. It was the only thing he could do lately. The last month had been the most boring one in his entire life. The new Terran Council had decided it was paramount to make contact and possibly an alliance with as many races as they could, especially with those technologically advanced enough to prove useful to them. At the beginning of the mission things had gone quickly and in the first ten days they'd visited the Enkarans, Herbidians and Tegalans with very positive results. Daniel was there as well as he was the one best suited for the job. In Pendergast's opinion, Daniel was the right person for the job since he thought the man had an innate ability to make friends quickly. After the initial success, things had changed once they reached Euronda. Five years ago the SG-1 made contact with the Eurondans who were at war with someone they called Breeders. When they'd found out that the Eurondans were driven by an Adolf Hitler-like ideology, bent on committing genocide against the Breeders who dared procreate without regard for genetic purity, the team left quickly severing all ties with them. All subsequent attempts to contact them through the Stargate had been unsuccessful and they believed the reason for this was the gate having been buried. It was probably because the complex the gate was in had collapsed under the Breeders' attack. The only remaining way to make contact was with a ship and that was why Euronda was on their scheduled itinerary.

Upon entering orbit the Prometheus was greeted with three missiles launched from the surface. The missiles were too slow and the ship's railguns were able to quickly dispose of them, and yet Pendergast wasn't happy. It wasn't a good start and Pendergast was pissed he wasn't authorized to reply in kind. Daniel was hell bent on making peaceful contact with the people of Euronda. As they had suspected, the Breeders had won the war shortly after SG-1's visit five years ago. Without the deuterium, the shield that protected the underground complex collapsed and the complex followed the same faith immediately after. The problem was that the Breeders didn't want to have anything to do with other races, no matter who they were. That was until Daniel explained their first contact with the Eurondans and how they'd decided to leave when they'd found out what kind of people they were. One of the Breeders remembered how an enemy fighter had helped them fight the others instead of attacking them and also slamming into the complex's shield. Daniel explained it was one of his people who was flying the fighter through the neural interface. He wanted to help them once he had found the truth about the Eurondans. That made the Breeders, now rightfully calling themselves Eurondans change their view of other races or at least one of them.

Still, the negotiations through video communication had lasted for almost two weeks before the Eurondans conceded to a meeting. After that, Daniel had quickly managed to establish a good relation and before leaving, the Prometheus beamed the buried gate and DHD on the surface so that further relations could be done through it rather than by ship. It was the only action Pendergast saw in the last three weeks except sitting and waiting and he was bored to death.

Now they were en route to P2X-416, a planet with two distinct races. One called themselves the Bedrosians and the other the Optricans. Bedrosians live by the Book of Nefertum, supposedly left behind when the Goa'uld departed from the planet. They believe wholeheartedly that their form originated on Bedrosian soil by Nefertum, and that theories of distant origin were false.

The Optricans made up a rival continent. Their beliefs were almost entirely opposite to that of their enemies. Optricans believed the human form had been brought to their current planet from a far-away place via a portal. It was because of this, and possibly other matters, that the Bedrosians waged war with the Optricans.

Almost six years ago the Stargate was unearthed on Bedrosian soil, likely buried after the upheaval. Two young scientists, Nyan and Mallin, were cutting away at the rock when the wormhole opened. Shortly afterward, a M.A.L.P. was sent through and SGC began communications with the people on the planet. Later SG-1 was allowed to arrive, where they were soon seized by the Bedrosian military, which refused to hear the words of the travelers and instead believed their arrival was an elaborate trick by the Optricans.

Despite the mounds of evidence, even with SG-1 and Nyan departing back through the device, the Bedrosian military covered up the evidence in order to pursue their vendetta against their Optrican rivals and to continue to worship their false god. After the return of SG-1 back home, they tried to reconnect with the planet on several occasions but with no success.

The Prometheus exited hyperspace inside the system and activated his stealth mode. The ship didn't have cloaking capabilities, but when the ship would power down most of his systems that have a high energy signature and when the ECM system was active, only very advanced sensors could detect it. The plan was to reach orbit and monitor the situation on the planet's surface without being noticed.

Pendergast watched the frontal view as they approached the planet, "Are there any signs they have detected our approach? "

"No sir," one of the officers manning the console on his right replied.

"Good, initiate a passive scan of the planet surface and try to access any broadcast originating from the planet. I want to know exactly what is going on down there," Pendergast ordered, finally having something to do.

The scanning had lasted almost an hour before Pendergast decided he had enough. He called Daniel to meet him in the conference room and fifteen minutes later they were going through the collected data.

"The information leaked," Pendergast stated while looking at his data pad.

"It looks that way. The Optricans have found out about the Stargate almost five years ago and they are at war ever since." Daniel sighed. This wasn't what he hoped for. The plan was to contact the Bedrosians first and force them to acknowledge the error of their ways and only then to contact the Optricans and tell them about the Stargate and the truth of their origin. This way they hoped that, after the truth was made public, the Bedrosians wouldn't go to war, but now that the war had already begun, he wasn't sure it would do them any good. It could even escalate things if they tried.

Daniel thought for a moment before coming to a decision, "I think we should contact the Optricans first, and in secret. Once we establish relations with them we can think how best to help stop this war."

Pendergast nodded, "I concur. We should coordinate our actions with the Optricans, _if_ they even want our help.

"Good point. We don't know how the Optricans are going to respond to an alien race in orbit around their planet."

"What did the Council say on the matter? I mean, where is the line we can't cross?"

"We all agreed that the only thing we can't do is to openly attack the Bedrosians. After all, this is not our planet." Daniel explained.

"You understand there's a distinct possibility that the Optricans are going to ask us to do just that."

"I know, but let's see first how things progress before going there."

"Alright, let's go and contact the Optricans."

Daniel and Pendergast went to the bridge in order to contact the Optricans. Upon arrival, Pendergast ordered the ship to change position above the Optrican continent and what they believed to be their capital city. Using a tight band, they contacted the Optricans without the Bedrosians knowing. The Optricans who responded didn't believe them at first, but after they gave them the exact coordinates of the Prometheus, they had to acknowledge there was a ship in orbit. They also haven't fired, which was a good sign. Pendergast didn't like the idea of contacting them this way because they didn't know the exact offensive capabilities of the Optricans and the ship was in stealth mode, which meant no shields and the main reactor working at minimal power. If the Optricans had energy weapons, the Prometheus would probably get hit before they could raise their shields. After fifteen minutes, the Optrican had found someone high enough and diplomatic enough to speak for their people.

"_May I ask who you are and what are your reasons for being here?" _The voice of Olim, the Optrican representative, came through the bridge speakers.

"My name is Daniel Jackson and I'm here as representative from my planet. We mean you no harm. We came from Earth, a planet twenty five thousand light years from here. Your people, as well as many others, have been taken from our planet more than five thousand years ago as slaves and brought to other planets across the galaxy by a race called the Goa'uld. I'm asking you to allow us to come down so we can discuss a possible alliance between our two people."

It took almost a minute to receive Olim's response, "_Why have you contacted us and not the Bedrosians?"_

"We did, almost six years ago. We came through a portal that connects planets across the galaxy. We call it the Stargate. Two Bedrosian scientists unearthed the Stargate and we came through to meet the people of this planet. Unfortunately, their military captured us and no matter how much we tried to explain who we were, they still believed we were Optrican spies and the Stargate to be some kind of elaborate deception. We eventually escaped through the portal and any attempt to contact them again has failed. We believe the Bedrosians buried the gate so that we couldn't contact them again." Daniel explained.

It took a few more minutes for Olim to respond, finally giving the coordinates where they could meet. Daniel didn't wait and with a protection detail he beamed in the room where Olim was. The Terran team was faced with a dozen Optrican soldiers, both sides with raised weapons. The Optricans were a little startled by the method this people used to get here.

Noticing the tension Daniel decided to say something before things could escalate. "Hello, I'm Daniel. Please, let's lower our weapons."

Olim nodded to his protection detail to do as he said and both sides slowly lowered their weapons. "I'm Olim, the man you spoke with earlier."

Daniel smiled, "Nice to meet you Olim. I apologize for the way we came here. We usually make first contact through the gate as a safer method to meet people, but the situation here made it impossible."

Olim nodded, "It's alright. If what you are telling is true, it will prove our beliefs were right all along. More than five years ago we heard rumors that a portal of some kind had been found by the Bedrosians, but those were only rumors with no way of proving them."

"Your rumors were correct. As I've already told you, we came here and have met with two scientists who unearthed the gate. Unfortunately, things didn't go as we hoped they would."

"Yes and those rumors were also enough to escalate our already precarious relationship with the Bedrosians into a war that we have been fighting ever since." Olim paused clearly thinking of something, "Why have you come here only now, why not five years ago?"

"We were at war with the race I've told you about, the same race that enslaved your people so long ago. We didn't have the resources to reach you here at the time, but we are here now and we want to help you if we can and possibly even become friends." Daniel explained the reason why they couldn't come sooner.

"So the race that took our ancestors from your planet is still here?" Olim asked with some concern.

Daniel sighed, "Yes they are, but in the last ten years we and a few other races have been able to greatly decrease the influence of the Goa'uld in this galaxy."

Olim's concern lessened a little, "That is great to hear. The Bedrosians always believed that Nefertem would eventually return."

"Olim, can you tell us the state of the war, or if there's something we could do to help end it. We have a lot of information we can share with you that can prove to the Bedrosians that Nefertem was in fact a Goa'uld who enslaved and transported your ancestors here in the past. Then you can release the data to the Bedrosian public. It could end this conflict." Daniel said.

Olim was already shaking his head, "The Bedrosians beliefs are deeply ingrained in their society and such beliefs are difficult to change, even when faced with indisputable proof. If you came here and told us the Bedrosian theories were correct, I'm not sure I would have believed you no matter how much proof you'd have to show us." Noting that Daniel understood, Olim continued, "The only thing that the Bedrosians and my race have decided not to do is to use weapons of mass destruction. If we corner the Bedrosians with the proof you have, I fear they could decide to use their nuclear arsenal. We have ways to intercept their missiles, but we cannot be certain we can stop them all."

Daniel nodded understanding their predicament. It was something he feared as well. "I understand Olim, but I don't know how else to stop this war. You must know that we are not authorized to openly enter this conflict on any side. We are here to make friends, but to openly oppose the Bedrosians is out of the question."

Olim understood, in a way glad the Terrans wouldn't use force since it could have easily been them and not the Bedrosians who got it wrong. "Maybe there is another way to solve this. Maybe we could meet with the Bedrosians and you could be there as well. With enough proof and a little luck, we could force them to end this war and to give us the Stargate, and if they don't accept we can threaten to release what we have to their public."

Daniel thought for a moment, "It's a dangerous plan. They could still decide to use their weapons of mass destruction instead of giving up on your demands." Daniel opined.

"That's true, but if we promise to keep it a secret, they could decide that it is preferable to an all-out attack that would probably destroy us both." Olim really thought it was the only way.

"It is your decision Olim. We will try and help you persuade them if this is what you want," Daniel replied.

"That is all I needed to know. I still need to convince my own leaders, but they want to end this war as much as I do so, I think they will accept."

"I also need to talk to my people and inform them of what is happening." Daniel replied.

Daniel beamed back to the ship and Olim went to talk to his leaders. For several hours the Optricans leaders disagreed with Olim's plan, but in the end they didn't have anything better except continuing to fight a war with no end in sight. In the meantime, Daniel informed Jack of recent events and Jack informed Daniel that he was playing a dangerous game. Daniel knew very well how dangerous it was even without Jack having to remind him. It wasn't the first time something like this happened, but he believed that this time things would end up differently.

Two days later, representatives from the Bedrosian nation came to see what the Optricans wanted. Daniel entered the room last and he immediately sensed the tension in the room. Three Bedrosians were sitting opposite to the three Optricans. One of the Optricans was Olim, sitting in the middle of his delegation. Daniel approached the table and saw the Bedrosians looking at him clearly uncertain who he was. He sat on the third side of the table alone. Olim and Daniel had decided it wouldn't be a good idea for him to sit on the Optrican's side. Daniel sitting alone would give the idea of him being more impartial, something that would look much less threatening to the Bedrosians. Once all parties were seated, the Bedrosian in the middle of his delegation spoke without any pleasantries and Daniel understood this was the man they needed to convince.

"What do you want Optricans. Are you perhaps prepared to surrender?" Baren said with a grin on his face.

Olim was indifferent at Baren's words, his face unreadable and Baren clearly didn't like it. "No Baren we are not here to surrender. On the other hand…" Olim replied leaving for the Bedrosians to imply how his sentence would end.

Baren was concerned. In all discussions he had with the Optricans he had never seen such certainty on Olim's face. He also didn't know who the fourth man, the one sitting alone, was and he didn't like not knowing things. "Tell us what you have to say so we can end another meaningless discussion."

Olim looked at Baren directly in his eyes, "Do you know the man sitting there?" Olim said pointing at Daniel.

Baren looked at Daniel. "Should I?"

"I think you should. He and three others came to our planet six years ago through the portal in your possession." Olim said calmly.

Baren paled at Olim's words. He never saw the people who had come through the portal, but if Olim knew about it, it could only mean they had a serious security breach or that this man told them. "I don't know what you are referring to." Baren replied, but there was no conviction in his voice.

"Please Baren, there is no reason to lie about it anymore. Before this man came to us, we didn't have any proof, only rumors and conjectures, but now…"

Baren was angry, "And how did this man come here if you say that _we_ have the portal?"

Olim grinned, "By ship."

Baren's face almost exploded. if what Olim was telling was true, the repercussions could be catastrophic for the Bedrosians. A race that knew the truth and at the same time advanced enough to travel here by ship was the worst nightmare he could possibly imagine. The only thing he could do was to keep lying and hope the Optricans somehow found out about the incident and this being only an elaborate deception. It was strange how suddenly a serious security breach looked better than the alternative, "You put a stranger here who pretends to be an alien and you expect me to believe you? This is another of your tricks, nothing more."

Daniel thought it was a good time to say something, "I assure you Mr. Baren that I'm not from this planet and I _am_ one of the people that came to this planet six years ago. One of the people you put in cages and tortured if I recall correctly. To tell you the truth, you have to thank Nyan, one of your scientists who helped us escape because if he didn't, relations between our people would be _very_ different. By the way, Nyan says hello. He's a really great scientist."

Baren felt cornered. He didn't know what he could say or do to get out of this. There was no doubt in his mind that this wasn't a ruse, mostly because he believed it was impossible the Optricans acquired so many details about the incident, but also because of the man who was sitting there. He was different somehow and he knew he wasn't an Optrican. "So what do you want, our surrender?Because, if it is, then you should know that it changes nothing."

Olim sighed, "No Baren, we don't want your surrender, we want peace. Just give us the portal and we can end this endless war that has already taken so many lives. You and your people can live the rest of your lives believing whatever you want to believe."

"And if we refuse to give you the portal, what then?" Barren asked.

"Daniel told us a lot about Nefertem. Daniel, if you please." Olim asked Daniel to continue.

"Nefertem was a low-level Goa'uld who took your people from the planet I came from, somewhere around five thousand years ago. After the rebellion on your planet three thousand years ago, Nefertem was first tortured and then killed by Ra as punishment for loosing this planet. Thankfully, the deposits of Naquadah on this planet had already been depleted and Ra didn't have any reason to return here, which probably saved you from being enslaved once more. We also have more information on Nefertem while he was on Earth if you are interested in, and even more information on the Goa'uld in general. The gist of it is that the Goa'ulds are a parasitic race that takes control of a human host. The host is aware of what is happening, but is unable to do anything to stop it. The Goa'uld were the scourge of this galaxy for the last ten thousand years, enslaving humans and killing any other race that threatened them. Fortunately, their reign of terror is finally coming to an end, as my people with the help of other races have succeeded in greatly diminishing their influence in this galaxy."

Baren was as red as a paprika, threatening to explode at any moment. "Lies and more lies! The Bedrosians will fight _you_ and anyone else who spreads such lies."

Daniel was fed up by arrogant bastards like Baren. "Mr. Baren, I don't know about you, but I think it's not a very good idea to threaten everybody who disagrees with your beliefs, especially races capable of crossing entire galaxies." Daniel said with a threatening voice and at the same time inferring the scope of their reach.

Olim waited for a moment, giving Boren time to count to ten in order to calm down, "We are prepared to keep this information and much more away from your public's ears if you give us the portal and if we end this war right now."

Baren thought about it for a long time, on moments, looking at Olim and then at Daniel. They were waiting patiently for his response, "I'll have to talk to the rest of the council before giving you any answer."

Baren stood up ready to leave, but Olim stopped him, "Baren wait! We only want to live in peace. Don't do anything that will cost countless lives on both sides, please."

Baren turned toward Olim looking straight in his eyes and then turned back and left together with the other two representatives.

Olim was concerned, something Daniel had noticed, but didn't know why, "What's the matter Olim? I thought it went well."

Olim sighed, "I'm not so sure. He left too soon and without giving his answer."

"He probably needs to ask the others in the council before answering. After all, this is a big decision." Daniel opined.

"You don't understand, Baren _is_ the most powerful man there. He controls the military and he's the chairman of the Bedrosian Council. If he thought that we should end this war, he could have said so here and the Council would have followed." Olim explained.

"So you think he didn't give us an answer not because he needs to ask the council but because he doesn't want peace." Daniel realized.

"Exactly Daniel, and if this is the case, the only option he has is…"

"…to prepare for a massive attack before we can tell their public the truth," Danielsaid, finishing the sentence.

Olim nodded seeing how Daniel got the gist of the situation, "I have to talk to the Council and inform them of what happened here."

"This is not how I thought things would turn out. I'm sorry Olim, I really thought we would convince them." Daniel apologized.

"It's not your fault Daniel. You only gave us the truth and tried to help."

"I know but still…" Daniel replied not knowing exactly what to say.

The two of them departed shortly after, Olim going to inform his leadership and Daniel to contact Earth. Upon arrival on the ship he immediately called Jack.

"Hi kiddo, how are things going?" Jack asked, but he already knew from Daniel's expression it wasn't anything good.

"Not good Jack. Olim thinks the Bedrosian won't accept the terms. He also thinks they will respond with a massive attack in order to stop the Optricans from releasing the information we gave them." Daniel shrugged.

"Daniel, I told you this could happen," Jack replied calmly.

"Jack, can we do something. I mean, can we intervene if they launch their warheads?" Daniel pleaded.

"No Daniel, you can't. This is not our war." Jack answered.

"But Jack, we have to do something. We can't just leave them to destroy each other." Daniel pleaded more.

Jack sighed, "No Daniel and that is final." Jack paused after seeing Daniel's puppy expression. "I want you to explicitly tell Pendergast that he's not authorized to enter this conflict no matter what the Bedrosians or Optricans do… except if you are directly attacked of course." Jack ended the sentence with an impeccable poker face.

It didn't take long for Daniel to understand what Jack was telling him. "Oh… okay Jack, I'll tell him just that."

"Okay then. Look, I have to go now. You know, paperwork and other stuff I really like to do," Jack said, clearly disgusted.

The connection ended and Daniel started pacing up and down the meeting room before storming out the next minute. He entered the bridge and stopped a few feet from Pendergast who was sitting in his chair as usual. "Can you tell me if something is happening inside the Bedrosian borders?"

"I was about to call you and ask you the same thing. There is a lot of chatter down there, and the missile silos on both sides are opening. Our sensors are telling us those missiles inside are carrying nuclear warheads." Pendergast explained the situation.

"This is what Olim was afraid of. The Bedrosians are preparing to launch their nuclear arsenal rather than accepting the Optrican's demands, and the Optricans are forced to do the same."

"So what are our orders?"

"Jack told me we are not authorized to enter the conflict… except if they shoot at us first." Daniel grinned.

Pendergast saw Daniel's grin and all that he could say was, "Oh boy."

"Colonel Pendergast, I want you to enter low orbit above the Bedrosian nation and broadcast on all channels a message explaining who we are. I also want you to insert a short plea to end this war and that we only want to be friends with the people of this planet. Of course there is no reason to remain in stealth mode any longer." Daniel said.

Pendergast smiled at Daniel, knowing full well what the Bedrosian response would be. "Crew, do exactly as our council member said. Reactor to full power and raise shields."

The Prometheus turned and only minutes later it was in low orbit above the Bedrosian Capital. The ship started broadcasting the standard first contact greetings message as well as the plea asking to stop the war. It didn't take long for the Bedrosians to reply. Five missiles flew upward toward the Prometheus. The railguns fired at the incoming missiles, but it wasn't easy to hit them. The Bedrosian missiles had a very advanced propulsion system, and two of the five missiles managed to reach the ship. Fifty megaton warheads exploded rocking the ship.

"Report!" Pendergast yelled.

"Shields at eighty-five percent and holding, no damage to the ship," an officer replied.

"Sir the Bedrosian have launched forty warheads at the Optricans," another officer added shorty after.

"Can we intercept them before they reach the Optrican continent?" Pendergast asked knowing full well it was too many of them to stop them all.

"No sir. We can take ten, maybe fifteen with our railguns, but forty is just too many," the Officer replied.

Daniel thought of something, "Wait, how many can we lock onto and beam into space?"

Pendergast didn't wait for the response. "Lieutenant, target the closest fifteen missiles with the railguns and lock on the others and beam them as far as possible into space."

The officer did as ordered and the railguns fired at the missiles approaching the Optrican border. Meanwhile, the sensors locked on the other missiles one by one, beaming them into space at maximum range. The beamed missiles lost their target and pushed further into space. After five minutes only a dozen missiles were still on course toward the Optricans. The Optricans added their own interceptor missiles and with only a dozen targets they were able to take them all down.

"Missiles have been destroyed sir" the Lt. operating the weapons replied.

"Good, target the silos and fire. I don't want any more missiles in the air." Pendergast ordered.

"Sir, to target the silos with the railguns we need to be closer," the Lt. replied.

"Very well, enter the atmosphere."

The Prometheus descended into the atmosphere, quickly approaching the silos. It didn't take long before they came under fire from the ground.

"Sir, they are firing at us with some kind of energy weapons."

"Why didn't they fire with them before?" Pendergast asked the Lt.

"It looks like their energy weapons are only for atmospheric fire. They can't reach orbit."

Pendergast looked at the shields status display, seeing they were slowly dropping, "How long until we reach our targets?"

"Fifteen seconds to optimal fire range sir."

Fifteen seconds later, all railgun batteries opened fire, piercing through the silos tops and provoking massive explosions inside them. It took some time, but eventually all known silos were destroyed and the Prometheus took off back into space and outside their weapons fire. The ship's shields were at thirty percent and some of the weapons fire was already doing some damage to the ship's hull.

"Status of the ship lieutenant?"

"Minor damage to the hull, nothing too serious captain," The Lt. paused seeing something on his console. "Sir, the Optricans are hailing us."

"Put them on," Pendergast ordered.

Seconds later Olim appeared on the main screen smiling, "I thought you were ordered not to interfere?"

Daniel stepped forward, "We were, but they attacked us first. We had to defend ourselves."

Olim chuckled, "Yes I saw that. Anyway, thanks for the help, we wouldn't have been able to stop all those missiles on our own."

Daniel smiled, "Glad to be of assistance," he paused thinking of something. "Olim, please tell me you are not contemplating using your own warheads now that the Bedrosians lost theirs."

Olim shook his head, "You don't have to worry. There were a few military minds who suggested just that, but our public wouldn't take it kindly if they'd find out that it wasn't necessary to use them. Besides, I knew it wouldn't help further relations with your people either."

Daniel was relieved, "You are right about that. Olim, what are you going to do now?"

"Daniel, I have to ask you one more favor. Can you broadcast all the data you have on the Goa'uld and the incident that happened six years ago, as well as this registration I'm sending you right now containing our meeting with Baren? I think if it comes from you it will have a greater impact on their public." Olim asked.

Daniel thought about it for a moment, "You hope their public will be outraged by their own government hiding the truth from them?"

"That's right, and with the recording of Baren practically admitting everything, I think they'll have a difficult time denying it."

"Very well, we'll broadcast the data." Daniel replied after some more consideration.

The connection ended and the Prometheus broadcasted all the data they had as Daniel promised. As expected the Bedrosian people were outraged by their government deception and recent actions and three days later, a new Council was appointed. In the meantime, the Optricans took the initiative, pushing hard on the front line. The Bedrosian troops were disorganized since they had a civil war on their hands to worry about and the only think they could do was to retreat.

It took another two days for the Bedrosians to contact, both, the Optricans and the Prometheus and ask them to meet with them. The meeting didn't go as smoothly as someone would have thought. Even though the Bedrosian were on the brink of a complete breakdown, they were still too arrogant and uncooperative, unwilling to concede to any of the Optrican demands. They conceded the fact that their government had hidden things from them, and that their actions were wrong, but they still believed Nefertem was their creator, even after all the data Daniel had shown them.

In the end it didn't matter much what they believed. They had to surrender and accept the terms the Optricans asked. The threat of the approaching Optrican forces and the nuclear arsenal they didn't use but still could was too much. In Daniel's opinion, the Optricans were very reasonable with their demands, allowing the Bedrosians to live their lives however they liked. Of course, the Optricans would still have supervision of their military, but the only thing they truly wanted was the gate. The Bedrosians reluctantly accepted and the gate was transferred a few days later, after the treaty was signed.

The Optricans were finally able to contact Earth directly and a small delegation came through the gate. They would stay on the planet for the time being, furthering diplomatic relationships with the Optricans and maybe, one day, even the Bedrosians.

* * *

**Earth – Terran Alliance HQ**

Daniel's job here was over and the Prometheus, with a very happy captain, had departed for Earth. It had taken two more days to reach Earth and Daniel was immediately summoned by the Council. The atmosphere inside was somber, but Daniel knew he had the Council on his side. The problem was, and probably will always be, the House of Representatives. Most of them were former members of the I.O.A. who thought every situation can be solved with some kind of magic wand, willing the desired result to just happen. Apparently their job was to try to undermine the work the Council was doing, probably wanting to force someone on it to resign and then place someone else who they _'approved of'_.

"Council, representatives, what is so urgent?" Daniel asked knowing full well why he'd been summoned so urgently.

Coolidge didn't wait, going straight to the matter, "You were not authorized to use force against the Bedrosians."

Daniel turned toward the representatives and Coolidge in particular, "I'm fully aware of it, and because of it, we used force only after they attacked _us_."

Coolidge smirked, "Yes of course, and I'm sure you didn't have anything to do with that by intentionally provoking them."

Daniel paused pushing his glasses back, "If you are inferring that our first contact message and a plea to stop the launch of their nuclear arsenal is cause for an attack then we are going to have a lot of trouble making allies out there."

Coolidge was losing his composure, "You did this on purpose. _You _intentionally provoked this attack."

Jack had enough of this, "Are you accusing a council member of trying to provoke a war?"

Coolidge stopped. He knew he had gone too far and he had the entire Council looking at him angrily. The other representatives were also silent, unwilling to provide support in what appeared a losing battle.

"I thought so." Jack said ending this conversation, "Now, I would appreciate if we could just go through the latest data we have and go back to our work. Some of us have other things to do you know," Jack ended the sentence looking straight at Coolidge. It was a well-known fact that the representatives didn't have anything to do except for attending meetings like this one.

The matter was settled and the discussion switched on how to best approach the Optricans, as well as the other races Daniel had visited. The discussion went on for the next fifteen minutes in which time, the good relations Daniel was able to install with those races greatly undermined any possible attempt Coolidge could bring to challenge Daniel's recent actions. There were many things that they could gain from their new allies and there was one of particular interest to Sam.

"The Eurondans have very advanced tech at their disposal. I'm particularly interested in their fusion reactors and we have a lot to offer them in return. They will need our help to rebuild their society," Sam said.

"What is so special about their fusion reactors? We already have Naquadah reactors that are far more efficient than that," Klaus Gehlen, a council member and head of the Terran Intelligence Agency (TIA) asked.

"That's true, but we need Naquadah for them to work. Naquadah can also be used as a weapon of mass destruction, as well as an alloy for building ships and superconductive conduits. Naquadah is very precious to us, especially since we don't have any on Earth. On the other hand, a fusion reactor needs deuterium which we have in abundance. This technology will be perfect for our planet to supply as much energy as Earth needs without giving anything that can be dangerous or too rare to use on a planetary scale," Sam explained.

Chapman, the British representative, wasn't so sure about that, "Oh please, if we introduce a new form of energy production the global market will collapse."

"That is precisely the reason why I'm proposing this technology." Sam paused seeing that Chapman didn't know what she was talking about. She continued explaining her reasons. "The reactors are massive and building them will take time and effort. This will give the economy time to adapt. Besides, we are now talking about gaining the technology. When and how we release it to the world is a discussion for another day."

Chapman nodded, "Alright that makes sense. What are we prepared to offer in return?"

"We can offer them supplies and help in rebuilding their planet. Maybe some minor technology that we know it won't be dangerous for us in their hands even if they become hostile." Sam replied.

"And what if they want more, like hyperdrive technology or weapons and shields, what then?" Klaus interjected.

"Well, we can always say that this tech was given to us by another race and that they don't want us to share it, which is in good part the truth. I don't think the Asgard would like us very much if we start sharing their tech. Eventually, we could start sharing technologies we reverse engineered from the Goa'uld, but for now I think the Eurondans will be more than happy with us helping rebuild their society." Sam answered.

Jack saw that everybody was nodding and decided to end this meeting before someone else started a new topic, "Alright, I think we covered everything on today's list. We can try what we have discussed here today and meet next week to see how it went."

They all went their own way except for Sam, Jack and Daniel who stayed behind.

"I don't have anything to do right now, let's go grab something to eat." Daniel asked.

"Alright, but first I have to see how the Daedalus' repairs are moving along. Weir has been nagging me she needs the ship ASAP for some kind of mission I didn't get. It involves monitoring some kind of event in space the scientists want to see." Jack said not really caring what it was.

"Repairs?" Daniel asked not knowing what happened.

"Yeah, the ship ran into a wraith hive almost a month ago and needed some repairs only one of our shipyards could do." Jack explained.

"One? Wasn't the Daedalus capable of fighting several hive ships at once?" Daniel asked remembering the reports of the Daedalus defending Atlantis a year ago.

"That was when the ship had a ZPM. Without it, the power reserve and shields don't last that long against the hive weapons. Those monstrosities are really hard to crack, especially if they are able to deploy their darts to protect the hive against our nuclear warheads."

Daniel knew how bad things were in the Pegasus galaxy. He also knew one ship alone couldn't do that much, "When will we have more ships to send there?"

Jack sighed, "Not as soon as I'd like. The three shipyards the Asgard built here are great and their beaming systems are really speeding things up. Still, it will take at least four more months to complete the next batch of ships."

Daniel nodded, "Well, it's not that bad either when you think about it. In four months we will more than double our fleet."

"Yes, but with the Goa'uld still alive and kicking and the Lucian Alliance out there, only one of those ships will go to the Pegasus galaxy.

Daniel was puzzled, "I must have missed a lot in the last month. I have no idea who or what the Lucian Alliance is."

"Well, they are… space pirates."

Daniel blinked, "Pirates? How can pirates be such a problem?"

"They can if they got their hands on a few Ha'taks. It appears they were able to capture them when the Jaffa rebellion started. Hey, by the way, tomorrow you need to go to Dakara, first thing in the morning."

"Jack, I just got back. Why the hell do I need to go there?" Daniel snapped.

"Because Teal'c is asking for our help, that's why, and you are the head of the department of foreign affairs."

"But I just got back." Daniel protested.

"Daniel, stop whining. Look, you two go grab something to eat. I'll catch up when I'm done."

"Fine," Daniel replied, shrugging.

Daniel and Sam went to the mess hall while Jack went to his office to check when the Daedalus would be ready. Thankfully the technicians working on the ship promised it would be ready in two days.

The predicted ten minutes turned into half an hour because Walter came in Jack's office asking him to sign a stack of documents and to read another equally large stack of reports. Eventually Jack managed to sneak away while Walter wasn't looking. In the mess hall he found Sam and Daniel chatting and soon the three of them were catching up with everything that Daniel missed in the month he was absent. Daniel was still complaining about going to Dakara tomorrow. He really wanted to spend some time here catching up with other work he had, but Jack was adamant that he needed to go. Things with the FJN weren't going that well. They needed help, but they were too proud or too stubborn to ask for it. Jack thought that if there's someone who could change their minds it was Daniel. They soon departed for their new accommodations on the Island. Tomorrow was going to be a big day for all of them and they needed the rest.

It was seven O'clock when Daniel came in the gate room and Sam and Jack were already there.

"Daniel, ready to go?" Jack said seeing Daniel entering the room.

Daniel blinked, "Why are you pushing so much for me to leave?"

"Because we are preparing to test how our systems perform without the ZPM plugged in and once we start there will be no gate travel for at least two hours," Jack replied, hurt by Daniel's accusations.

"Oh… ok then, I'm ready." Daniel said but paused for a moment, "Why are you trying the systems without the ZPM?"

Sam was the one to answer, "When we designed the Island we wanted to make it fully sufficient and that also means without the need for a ZPM. We don't know how to build them, or when we will need it elsewhere so…"

"Got it," Daniel replied.

The gate started spinning and after seven turns the last chevron locked, connecting the gateroom with Dakara.

"Well, that's my cue to leave. We'll see each other tomorrow."

"You think it will take only one day? Usually the Jaffas are more stubborn than that," Jack asked.

"Well, from where I stand, there are two possibilities. One, they listen and we come to an agreement today, or two, they don't listen and no matter how much I stay there I won't be able to convince them. In both cases, I'm home by tomorrow."

There was some logic behind Daniel's reasoning. "Ok Danny boy, you know best. See you tomorrow."

Jack and Sam watched as Daniel went through the gate. "Carter let's do this test, shall we."

Sam was working on one of the console, "Alright, the ten Naquadria reactors are online and working properly. We can disconnect the ZPM whenever ready."

"Do it" Jack said.

Sam sent the command and the ZPM disconnected from the power grid. To Jack's surprise, nothing bad happened. Usually it always did.

"Reactors are at seventeen percent power output. Everything looks fine." Even Sam's voice denoted a hint of surprise.

"Ok, let's proceed with faze two."

Jack was needed for the test since he was the most qualified to use the chair. After the Terran Alliance was formed there was no need to keep the chair and all the drones in Antarctica.

"Ok, let's power up the shield dome, and see how it holds then."

After Sam pushed some buttons, a massive yellow dome formed above the center of the island where the Headquarter was, "Shield is up and running… reactors at fifty percent." Sam said before turning to Jack and continuing, "Go sit in the chair and power her up."

Jack did as he was told, the chair starting to glow a bright blue color. In the meantime, Sam watched the display, "Okay, we are at sixty percent for the reactors."

"That's good isn't it?" Jack asked.

"Yes and no."

"Carter it can't be both… can it?"

"I mean yes everything works fine, but the problem is sixty percent is a lot considering that no one is shooting at the shield and you are not using the drones. There's a slight possibility that, if we are under attack, the shield and the drones would be too much for the reactors. We should plan to put at least two more reactors in the near future to be on the safe side."

"We have already pushed our budget to the limit. We have to put it on hold for the time being. Besides, we have only a few drones left so…" Jack replied.

"That's true." Sam thought about it. They only had a few hundred drones left anyway. Sam snapped from her thoughts and continued, "Alright, I'm shutting down everything. Let's test the gate."

The shield dome dropped and Jack got up from the chair that immediately powered down. "Ok, dial Atlantis."

"I'm not sure we'll have enough power for that." Sam said.

"We won't know it until we try."

Sam nodded and started working on the dialing program. The gate started spinning and after the eight chevrons were locked, the gate established a connection to Atlantis. Sam watched the readings on her display, "Reactors at ninety-seven percent and holding."

Jack waited a moment to see if indeed everything was working, "See, everything is working just fine."

At that point the gate shut down and all the lights in the room went dark.

"You had to say it, didn't you," Sam was pissed, more with the system than with Jack.

Jack shrugged with a sheepish expression on his face, "What went wrong?"

"How the hell should I know, nothing is working. We'll see soon, the backup should start in a moment."

Jack waited looking around the dark room. It took a little more than just a moment, but the system eventually rebooted, the consoles powering up and the lights coming back, illuminating the room once again. "I thought you said ten reactors will be enough to dial Atlantis."

Sam worked some more on her console, "It was, but somehow one of the power conduits couldn't hold the amount of power that went through it and I don't know why. It should have."

"Well, it's better that than the reactors, isn't it?" Jack said.

"I'm not so sure. The conduits are made of superconductive Naquadah. They should be able to hold three times the amount of power we've put through them. We'll have to check all the conduits leading from the reactors." Sam said not very happy about the amount of work she'll have to do today.

On the other hand, Jack was glad that when she said 'we', it meant her and some other scientist and not him. "So, the test is over for today?"

Sam saw how happy Jack was. He would have the rest of the day free since there was no team scheduled for today. On the other hand, her day just went from busy to extremely busy and she didn't like that fact, "Yeah, until we check everything we can't go any further with the tests. Since you have nothing to do, you could go and catch up with Daniel and see how things are progressing with the Jaffa."

Jack's happiness faded quickly. He was already planning to spend the day at his cabin in Minnesota fishing all day, but instead she had to give him something else to do. The worst part was he didn't want to discuss it with her. He knew that, in the end, he would still end up on Dakara even more frustrated than he was now. The only positive side was that he really wanted to see Teal'c, "Fine, I'll go."

Sam nodded, still thinking about the conduits and trying to find a reason why they didn't work as they should have.

Jack saw how Sam was already thinking about other matters and without further ado he instructed one of the personnel to dial Dakara.

* * *

**Dakara**

Dakara was changing, Jack thought immediately upon arrival. The city was becoming larger and there were more people now buzzing around than the last time he had been here. One thing he didn't like was that the gate wasn't protected as he thought it should be. There was no Iris or forcefield and only a dozen guards were watching it. One day someone was going to throw some bomb through the gate and they wouldn't even know what hit them. This was definite evidence how misguided the Jaffa were. They thought throwing a bomb through the gate was an act of a coward. Maybe that was true, but it didn't mean no one would do it, coward or not. Jack sighed and proceeded further toward the main building. Everybody knew who he was, so nobody bothered asking him what he was doing here. The first Jaffa who actually stopped him was the guard in front of the Council's chamber. The guard checked inside if he was allowed to enter while Jack waited patiently.

Inside, Jack saw Daniel arguing with Gerak and he didn't want to be part of that conversion. He quietly sneaked toward Teal'c on the other side of the table.

"Teal'c", Jack whispered.

"O'Neill, it is good to see you." Teal'c replied while Bra'tac, who was standing next to him, just nodded to O'Neill.

Jack nodded back to Bra'tac. "Teal'c, what's going on with the two of them?" Jack asked referring to Daniel and Gerak.

"They are arguing the changes Daniel is proposing… and Gerak stubbornly refusing." Teal'c answered a little frustrated.

"Anything in particular?" Jack asked while still whispering.

"Daniel is trying to persuade him the FJN needs to provide food for themselves. Gerak is answering that the Jaffa will never be farmers and that he will trade for food with other humans instead."

"Okay, that even I know it's not going to work," Jack replied.

"Daniel thinks so as well. He argues that no race should ever depend entirely on someone else's food, but Gerak is still not convinced."

"If the FJN relies completely on others for food, they could raise their prices knowing you have no choice but to accept," Jack said knowingly.

"Yes, but Gerak believes nobody would _dare_ do such a thing. Daniel did not take kindly that kind of attitude."

Jack turned from Teal'c toward the two men arguing on the other side of the table.

Daniel was pissed, "You can't threaten others to give you food for the price that YOU want."

"Why not? If the price is fair, they have no reason to complain." Gerak answered not fully understanding why Daniel was so angry.

"You can't ask for food and at the same time tell them at which price they HAVE to sell it." Daniel was baffled by Gerak reasoning, especially because Gerak thought this was normal, "Gerak, you are talking about extortion toward other races, and I'm telling you right now, Earth won't stand by and let you do something like that."

Gerak looked at Daniel with a threatening look, "What are you saying, that you will not let us trade with humans for food?"

Daniel sighed, "No, that is not what I'm saying at all. You can trade as much as you want, but you CAN'T force others in selling at a price YOU decide it's fair."

"Why not?" Gerak didn't get it.

Daniel stopped for a moment pushing his glasses back, "Look, it's very simple. Someone is selling and you are buying. He gives you the lowest price he is prepared to sell. If that price is acceptable, you buy it and everybody is happy. If not, everybody leaves and that's it."

"But then he can put whatever price he wants?" Gerak said.

Daniel sighed, "That is exactly the reason why you need to have your own food. That way nobody can force you to buy it from them on their terms if you don't want to, and food is a necessity you can't afford not to have."

Jack was sure this argument could go on for hours, something he wasn't prepared to listen, "Hey guys, what you say you take a break."

Daniel snapped hearing Jack's voice, "Jack? When did you get here?"

"Oh a few minutes ago," Jack said in his easygoing manner.

Gerak interjected before Daniel could say anything, "Maybe it is better if we stop this discussion for now."

Gerak stormed out of the room without giving time for anyone to protest. Daniel wasn't too happy about it. At this pace he'll never change Gerak's mind.

Daniel walked toward Jack, "What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to have some kind of test at HQ?"

"Yeah, we did, but there was something wrong with the conduits or something. I'm not really sure. Since I didn't have anything better to do for the rest of the day, Sam thought it would be a good idea for me to come here, so… here I am. How are things going for you here?" Jack asked already knowing the answer.

"They aren't, that's how?" Daniel shrugged before continuing, "Maybe when Gerak comes back things will go a little better."

"Always the optimist Daniel," Jack replied believing they won't go any better.

Rak'nor entered the chamber and approached Daniel, "There is not going to be any more discussion today. Gerak just ringed back to his ship and I do not believe he is coming back."

Daniel was stumped, "So Gerak took the opportunity to flee. Can we continue without him?"

Bra'tac, who also came near them, shook his head, "There is no point in discussing anything without Gerak's presence. Even if we come to an agreement, Gerak would undermine it saying it was reached without his approval."

Teal'c was frustrated by all this. After so much work he and the others have done, they were nowhere near a solution. Every time the council needed to make a decision, Gerak would disappear and the Council couldn't reach a decision without him, "This is getting us nowhere. Gerak is stopping us every time we try to change the way the Jaffa live."

"You can't have the presiding council member disappearing on you every time you need to make a decision he doesn't like," Jack opined.

Teal'c looked at Jack with a raised eyebrow, "Interesting. Daniel tells me you often use the same tactic in your deliberations."

Jack was stunned and hurt, "Daniel?"

"What? You know it's true." Daniel retorted.

"What are you talking about? I don't bail out when there's an important decision to make," Jack was confused.

"No, you usually bail out when you think the decisions we need to make are… boring."

"I thought the rest of you can come to a decision without me on how much toilet paper we need for next month."

"We do, but the truth is the presiding council member should always be present, not just when you think it's something important," Daniel explained

"Who says that?" Jack asked, knowing full well he was burying his own grave.

"We did, in our proposal," Daniel answered.

"Dammit, I didn't know that." He really needed to read the damn thing, but the problem was that every time he tried, he would fell asleep after the first page.

Daniel sighed, knowing full well Jack didn't read the paper. He was also asking himself who's brilliant idea it was to put him as the chairman of the council, but he remembered it was his and Sam's so he didn't have anyone else to blame. He thought he should ask Sam later what kind of temporary insanity came into them when they made that particular decision.

Daniel snapped from his rather depressing thoughts, starting to think about what to do next, "So what now? Are we going to wait for Gerak to return?"

Bra'tak shook his head again, "Gerak is probably leaving the system as we speak. We could be waiting for days."

Jack clapped with his hands, "So we are free then, and I think I know what we should do."

Daniel dreaded the answer, but he asked anyway, "What?"

"We should go on a mission," Jack said smiling.

"What?" Daniel asked again.

"You heard me. The three of us should go pick up Sam and go on some kind of mission on an unexplored planet."

Daniel sighed, "We can't Jack, we are council members now."

"Well, in my book that means that no one can say no to us," Jack paused, seeing Daniel's expression of non approval, "Oh come on Daniel. When was the last time we did something other than being in our offices or in some boring meeting? When was the last time you inspected some new ruins or found an ancient artifact on some forgotten planet?" Jack turned to Teal'c, "And you Teal'c. When was the last time you used your staff weapon on some bad guy, ha? We need this or we'll end up like old politicians talking and talking all day and never doing anything we actually like doing."

From their expression Jack understood they were considering it. He knew that all of them took their new jobs because it was needed, but he also knew that being a council member and having meetings all day wasn't what they really liked to do. Jack decided to continue before someone could find a reason to say no, "Look, we can find a nice planet that we already surveyed and that we know it doesn't have anything too dangerous on it. It will be a cake walk."

* * *

**Earth – Terran Alliance HQ**

It took Jack another fifteen minutes, but in the end, both, Teal'c and Daniel decided there was no harm in doing something they liked for one day. They all gated back to HQ and started searching for Sam who was somewhere in the complex checking the conduits. They found her with another scientist near reactor number three.

"How's going Sam?" Jack asked from behind, startling her in the process.

Sam turned and saw Jack, Daniel and Teal'c standing there. He hadn't seen Teal'c in almost a month so she jumped immediately to greet him, "Teal'c. It's so nice to see you."

"It is nice to see you too CouncilorCarter." Teal'c replied with a small bow of his head.

She smiled at the way he called her, but she didn't object. She already tried a few times, telling Teal'c he didn't need to call her that way, they were friends after all, but Teal'c continued anyway. It must be some kind of Jaffa thing, she thought. "What are you all doing here?"

Jack smiled, "We are here to pick you up and head for P3X-745."

"What?"

"We have decided it is time for us to take a break from the work we usually do and head on a mission on some unexplored planet," Jack said.

Sam looked at all three of them, trying to find some signs of insanity, "What are you talking about?"

"Jack convinced us it would be a good thing to change scenery for one day," Daniel interjected.

"But I have work to do here. I can't just pack and leave everything."

"Why not? Who's gonna stop you? Don't tell me there's not one of the hundred scientists here that can't do your work while you are gone."

Sam was cornered, "That's true, but still, we can't go on a mission. We are council members now."

"I told Daniel before and I'm telling you now. In my book it only means there's no one who can say no to us, so pack your bags and let's go."

"What's on P3X-745?" Sam asked.

"Not much. Our probe picked up some ruins and nothing more. Perfect for our little trip," Jack said.

Sam smiled, thinking it could actually be fun to go on an unexplored planet, "Fine, but we must be back before tomorrow."

Jack nodded and the four of them went to prepare for their first mission together in almost a year.

* * *

… _**six hours later**_

The usual tranquility of the gateroom was interrupted by the distinctive sound of the gate spinning and locking the seven symbols necessary to establish a viable connection between two planets. The iris automatically closed itself before the last chevron locked into position, blocking the erupting event horizon from filling the room. The technician, working on the station on the upper level, received Jack's identification code and hastily inputted the necessary commands to reopen the iris. From the event horizon Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and Jack came through covered from head to toe in a thick layer of what looked like mud and they didn't look very happy.

Jack sighed seeing that nobody was looking at him on purpose, "Oh come on, it wasn't that bad."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, giving Jack a disapproving look. After a moment, he turned toward Daniel, "DanielJackson, please inform CouncilorO'Neill that I am not speaking to him for the conceivable future."

"I can't, I'm not speaking with him either," Daniel replied to Teal'c before looking at Sam.

"Don't look at me. I'm going to take what will probably be the longest bath in history, hoping to take this _thing_ off of me." Sam said pointing at the _'mud' _she was covered in.

"Oh come on guys. Except for this little _incident _it wasn't that bad. Daniel, you even saw some ruins there." Jack said.

"The remains of two mediaeval houses can hardly be called ruins Jack," Daniel said pretty pissed.

Jack turned to Teal'c, "And you Teal'c… you had to shoot at something. That's something isn't it?"

"Firing at wild animals that resemble pigs is hardly worthy of a warrior's time," Teal'c replied still not looking at Jack.

Jack turned to Sam, "And you… you," Jack paused, thinking what she did of interesting before continuing, "Actually I got nothing for you, but come on, it wasn't that bad."

"It wasn't that bad? Look at me!" Sam yelled back at Jack.

"How should I have known we were running exactly where those animals do… their business? They are pretty clean animals if you think about it. They don't poop everywhere like other animals we know," Jack thought at loud.

"No, they do it in just one big place instead. I'm so grateful for that," Sam said, giving Jack a death glare.

The three of them turned and walked out of the gateroom, leaving Jack alone.

One of the technicians entered the room, walking straight toward Jack, but stopped ten feet from him after smelling the situation, "Is everything alright sir."

"Does this look alright to you?" Jack said storming outside the gateroom.

As promised Sam didn't come out of her bathroom for almost two hours. The others were a little faster, but still taking a lot of time to clean up. The three of them were already gathered in the mess hall eating quietly when Sam came in.

She sat next to Jack before speaking to him, "We have a problem."

"Oh come on, I apologized ten times already. How many more times do I have to say I'm sorry?" Jack said frustrated.

"Not that! We have a real problem; here at HQ."

"What kind of problem?" Jack asked seriously.

"You remember the failed test this morning?" Sam asked.

"Yes, the one with the conduit problem. What about it?"

"I've just got back the results. The conduit was unable to withstand that kind of power because they are not made with the specifications they should have been made."

"So it's a manufacturing problem?" Jack asked not really knowing why this was so troubling.

"Yes, there is less superconductive material in the conduits than it should be. Seven percent less to be exact," Sam said worried.

Jack saw she was worried, but he didn't get why exactly, "So what's the big problem? We'll make new ones… problem solved."

Sam shook her head, "You don't get it. The superconductive material used is Naquadah. We have seven percent Naquadah from the conduits missing."

Jack finally got it, although he didn't know why Sam didn't say that in the first place, "How much?"

Sam sighed, "At least ten pounds of refined Naquadah."

Jack sighed, "Don't tell me. The Naquadah can be used for another purpose."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, if you refine it even further, you can get weapons grade Naquadah."

"Oy," Jack grunted, but then he thought something, "Didn't we make the conduits here on base?"

"Sam shook her head, "No, we didn't. The conduits were built before we had our own factories up and running. We gave the contract to one of the companies in the US we used before the program became public."

Jack thought about it for a moment, "Wait, how did they think they could get away with this in the first place?"

"They would have if we didn't push the reactors to the limit, and even then it was only a fluke the conduit didn't work as it should have. The conduits were designed to withstand almost three times the amount of power the reactors can push through them. They probably thought that, even with seven percent less Naquadah, the conduits would be able to withstand that amount of power," Sam explained.

"We'll have to check that company." Jack was very serious in finding who was responsible and where the stolen Naquadah was now.

"We can't," Daniel interjected.

"What do you mean?"

"We have no jurisdiction outside this island, remember? The only thing we can do is to notify the US government through their representative here and nothing more."

"Sure, that is a great way to tell whoever is involved that we are on to them. We must find another way to find that Naquadah before we say anything to them," Jack said.

"Jack, I'm not so sure this is such a good idea. This organization is new and all countries are looking at us to make some kind of mistake so they can take over or shut us down. If we go behind their backs on this, and they find out about it, it could be trouble for all of us. It could be the end of the entire organization. We can't risk losing everything over this. Let's notify the government and see what happens," Daniel opined.

"Daniel, you remember that, when Earth was attacked, Baal knew where the ZPM was even though it was highly classified. If we say something and the same people that informed Baal find out that ten pounds of Naquadah had been stolen from us, we could be in an even greater risk than we are now," Jack asked.

"Well, that could work to our advantage if you think about it," Sam interjected.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"I can bet that, right now, the stolen Naquadah is somewhere safe, shielded from our sensors, but if we make a fuss about it in the right circles, they could decide to move it and we could pick up the Naquadah with our sensors aboard the Prometheus," Sam explained.

Jack thought about it, "It could work, and we are at the same time also covering our asses this way, but first I want Klaus on this."

There were many candidates from all the countries involved in the Terran Alliance, and all of them wanted their candidate for the job as Head of the Terran Intelligence Agency (TIA). Jack had to pick someone for the job, but it wasn't easy. All candidates had perfect records, but only one could be picked. Jack saw Klaus's résumé and found something the other candidates didn't have. The TIA was a new agency with the job of collecting intelligence on a much larger scale than usual, which was different from what the current agencies were doing. A new way of doing the job was needed and Klaus had that kind of out-of-the-box mentality, unconstrained with the usual methods.

"Are you sure you can trust him?" Sam asked.

"Look, if we can't trust our fellow Council members, then we have a much bigger problem than some stolen Naquadah."

"You may have a point there. Ok, let's go talk to him," Sam replied.

The three of them finished eating in a hurry before leaving for Klaus' office.

Klaus watched as the three of them entered his office, "What's wrong?"

Jack stopped short of his desk, "How do you know something is wrong?"

Klaus just raised one eyebrow.

"Fine, something is wrong and we need your expertise," Jack said.

In the next fifteen minutes Jack explained what was going on while Klaus listened calmly without saying one word.

"Alright, I got the gist of it, but give me two hours before informing Coolidge," Klaus said.

"Why?" Daniel asked.

"Because I want to set up a few things before that happens. I still have many contacts in the intelligence community. Contacts that can help us monitor the situation even without leaving the island. In the meantime, you can tell the Prometheus to scan the facility where the conduits were built."

"You think they are still there?" Jack asked.

"No, but the Prometheus has to start somewhere and, for now, we don't have any other lead we can check."

"Alright, I'll tell Pendergast to start scanning," Jack said.

The three of them turned to leave but Klaus stopped them, "Jack, I appreciate you coming to me for help. I know it isn't easy to trust someone new."

Jack nodded, "Hey, if we don't start trusting each other, we can pack our bags right now and leave."

Klaus nodded in understanding and Jack, Sam and Daniel left the room right afterward. Klaus thought about what to do before starting to make several calls that would place a few agents with whom he worked with in the past on crucial positions, listening to communications that could possibly lead to the perpetrators.

Two hours later Jack, Sam and Daniel were in the Council Chamber with Coolidge present. Klaus wasn't there. They all came to the decision that Coolidge didn't have to know Klaus was involved.

"Mr. Coolidge, we have a rather serious situation on our hands," Jack said.

"What kind of situation?" Coolidge was puzzled.

"We have found out that almost ten pounds of refined Naquadah have been stolen."

"Stolen? Here?"

"No Mr. Coolidge, it didn't happen here. The company that built our conduits made them with almost seven percent less Naquadah. This is also the reason why one of our tests this morning has failed due to overloading," Sam explained.

"So what do you want _me_ to do about it?" Coolidge asked.

'_What kind of question is that? What is he an idiot?'_ Jack thought to himself. "What do you think you should do? We have no jurisdiction outside the island. You have to contact your government and inform them of what happened. We need to start searching for the missing Naquadah as soon as possible."

"Why so much fuss about ten pounds of conduit material?" Coolidge asked still not understanding.

'_He IS and idiot,' _Jack thought. "Because Naquadah can be used as a weapon, that's why."

"What kind of weapon?"

'_That man is more ignorant than I am,' _Jack thought before answering,"The nuclear kind, Mr. Coolidge."

Finally understanding struck Coolidge like a ten pounds Naquadah hammer. "How could you have let this happen?" Coolidge asked with an accusing tone.

Jack was about to blow. Thankfully Daniel intervened, "Mr. Coolidge, the company that built the conduits is on American soil. We don't have the ability, or the right to intervene anywhere outside this island. It is the job of your government, and yours, to make sure things like this never happen."

The ball was on his side and Coolidge knew he didn't have any way to blame this on them, "Fine, I'll notify the President of what happened."

"Thank you Mr. Coolidge. We would also like to ask you if you can ask the President for a special permit for us to investigate the theft without the restrictions we are currently under," Daniel asked.

"Sure," Coolidge answered even though he didn't intend to present their request at all.

"Great. It is probably better if it comes from you than having Councilor O'Neill call President Hayes directly," Daniel said implying the well-known friendship between the President and Jack.

Coolidge was angry. They screwed him royally with this. He knew that if he didn't ask the President for the special permission they had asked for, and Jack called the President to check on things, he could lose face. He also knew the President wouldn't like him asking that because he would have a difficult time denying it. He took a deep breath and stormed out of the room.

Jack smiled at Daniel, "Daniel, you are becoming a real politician you know that. You screwed Coolidge good with your last sentence. I saw it on his face. He'll have no choice, but to ask the President."

Daniel smiled as well, "And the President will have no choice but to give it to us."

"Why you think that?" Sam asked.

"Because, if he doesn't give us the permission we're asking, he can't utilize our resources on American soil to find the Naquadah…" Daniel started explaining.

"…and if, God forbids, something terrible happens with the Naquadah and he had the opportunity to use our resources but he didn't, everybody will blame him," Jack continued Daniel's thought.

"It would be political suicide," Daniel concluded.

Sam saw Daniel and Jack's wicked smile, "You two are becoming too comfortable at this game for my taste. You are both becoming… politicians," Sam finished her sentence with disgust.

"Hey, let's not start calling names, shall we. We are just learning how the game is played, that's all," Jack replied confident in his answer.

Sam blinked, "And the difference is…"

Jack opened his mouth to reply to her accusation, but he didn't know what to say. He looked at Daniel and saw he had the same blank expression.

"My thought exactly," Sam said.

Both Jack and Daniel didn't know the difference, but they knew they weren't politicians and that was enough for them. Now, the only thing they could do was to wait and see what would happen. What troubled them the most was the fact that they didn't know who they can trust or not. Their isolation from the rest of the world made them safer against other parties who wanted more influence over their organization, but it also made them oblivious of affairs outside the island.

Two hours later, Jack received a call from the President, granting them full access to the investigation in the theft of the Naquadah.

* * *

**Earth – United States**

Three TIA agents went to the factory that constructed the conduits and started interrogating people that worked there. The first thing they wanted to do was to plug everybody on a lie detector they had developed and that combined several alien technologies. It was something in-between a zatarc detector and a memory recall device. Still, the problem was that laws had to be followed in the investigation. In the same way a person can refuse to take a lie detector from the police, the same way people had the opportunity to refuse their interrogation, or even call a lawyer if they wanted to. To the three agents it was a sign of guilt for the two people that refused the lie detector, but there were no proof and time was running out. It took them almost two days to find out that one of them had a lot of gambling debts that had miraculously been paid off in full only a week earlier. They had their prime suspect and now they only needed to make him talk.

Bishop was one of the agents best versed in interrogations, so he was chosen to talk to the suspect. After an hour of relentless questioning in a room heated to 100 degrees and without water, the man was beginning to crack.

"… We already know you did it. There is no point in lying anymore," Bishop said.

"You don't understand. They paid my debt and told me if I didn't help them they would kill my family and if I say something here they will still do it."

"If you are willing to help us we can protect you and your family," Bishop said.

"No you can't… nobody can," the man was almost in tears.

"Yes we do. We have access to places where they can't reach you or your family, but you need to tell us right now everything that you know."

The man was now interested, "What do you mean by, places they can't reach me?"

"We are the Terrans. We can take you to our island or even to another planet where they won't be able to get to you."

The man thought about it for a moment before realizing it was his only choice. "I'll tell you everything I know, but it's not much, I can tell you that."

The man started telling his story on how two men contacted him and asked him to steal the Naquadah. He only met the two men twice and he didn't even know their names. He really believed nothing of what he could tell them would be of any use, but he didn't know about the lie detector and the memory recall device they had. The agents hooked up the man to the machine and in minutes they had several clear images of the two men involved.

Using the FBI database they soon found out the two men were former NID agents who had lost their jobs when the NID was dismantled. It took them another day and a half to track down one of their associates who was willing to talk. He told them how they contacted him a few days ago needing some special equipment and how they needed it in Huston, delivered by tomorrow. He knew when it was time to switch sides. He agreed to deliver the goods they asked while the three TIA agents and the FBI would prepare the trap. The plan was not only to catch the two former agents, but also to make them talk if at all possible. It was a long shot, but they had to try.

Bishop, Malcolm and Yuri were in a small van, full of electronic devices that the FBI routinely used. They were waiting for the meeting to take place. The place was an old warehouse on the outskirts of the city with almost no civilians around at this time of night, something that was going to make their job much easier. There were also a half dozen FBI agents in civilian clothing and a full squad of SWATs positioned around the warehouse, just waiting for the signal. They didn't know if the two former NID agents were alone or how well armed they were, and they didn't want to take any chances.

Bishop watched as an old van drove into the street where the warehouse was, "Here we go."

The van stopped in front of the warehouse, immediately shutting down his engines and lights. It took less than a minute for someone to get outside the warehouse and approach the vehicle. The driver stepped outside.

Bishop and the others were listening through the microphone they planted in the man's car.

"_Did you bring what I asked?"_

"_Yeah, it's in the back. Why do you need this thing anyway?"_

"_It is nothing that should concern you," _the man said sharply.

"_Look, I usually don't care for what you need my products, but I'm concerned about why you'd need this particular item. Come on, there aren't a lot of reasons to need a custom made shielded container. A container that blocks all kinds of radiation… if you catch my drift," _the driver replied nervously.

"He sounds too nervous. He'll blow up the whole thing," Bishop said frustrated.

"_And what if it is?" _the other man replied with a harsh voice.

"_Nothing… I just don't want to end up on the ten most wanted list, that's all. Look, just tell me is not plutonium or something like that."_

"_It's not, happy now?"_

"_Fine, not that I believe you,_" the driver replied moving to the back of the van.

"_I don't care. You think whatever you want to think."_

"_Where is your partner?" _the man asked while opening the back of the van.

"_What's with the ten questions?" _the other man asked with a suspicious tone of voice.

"Shit! He's pushing it too far too soon," Bishop said angrily before picking up the radio. "To all units, prepare to move."

"_What do you mean?" _The man said even more nervous.

The former NID agent looked suspiciously at the man for a long moment before looking around, searching for clues if this was a set up. He saw one homeless person near a dumpster. It was enough to make his suspicions skyrocket, knowing from experience that in a situation like this, a bump is never just a bump. He took out his weapon, a vicious looking handgun, and started to back up toward the warehouse.

Bishop saw the man retreating and reacted without hesitation, "All units move-move-move."

The bump that wasn't a bump got on his feet immediately raising his weapon while from both corners of the warehouse, swats came out weapons trained toward the former NID agent. The agent instinctively fired a burst of shots from his weapon toward the approaching swats on his left side before entering the warehouse through the door. The agents were luckily unharmed because the perpetrator was shooting too hastily, not really aiming properly.

Half a dozen swats reached the entrance door and two-by-two entered the warehouse. There were three men inside, immediately firing at the approaching swats who instinctively took cover behind some crates. Without giving the perpetrators time to regroup, the swats threw flash bangs toward the three men. While a few swats provided covering fire, the rest poured out of cover, going straight for the, by now, disoriented former NID agents. One of them managed to regain control and tried to shoot the approaching swats, but they already had their weapons trained with a clear line of sight. A few short bursts killed the man even before he could fire. The other two were surrounded in seconds, leaving them no other option but to surrender.

It took them only a few minutes to find the stolen Naquadah, almost ten pounds of the material. All in all, Bishop believed the mission was a success. They had the Naquadah and two former NID agents ready for questioning. Bishop walked out of the warehouse and saw the captured men being taken by some other agents who weren't there during the raid. He hastened his pace approaching the unknown agents before they could leave the scene.

"Where are you taking the prisoners?" Bishop asked with an accusing tone.

One of the agents turned to face Bishop, "We are taking them in for questioning."

Bishop was not ready to give up so easily, "These are my prisoners and we will perform the interrogation."

"Mr. Bishop, your job here is done. You have recovered the stolen Naquadah. Your assistance won't be needed anymore," the agent replied.

Bishop was frustrated, "On whose authority?"

The agent smiled, giving Bishop a piece of paper. Bishop already knew it wasn't anything good, even before reading it. He unfolded the paper, skimming its content. It was from higher up, informing him that their special permit had been revoked and the FBI is to take full control of the investigation.

The agents took the prisoners and left, leaving Bishop alone with his thoughts. Malcolm and Yuri came out of the warehouse and approached their thoughtful colleague.

"What happened?" Malcolm asked, seeing Bishop's expression.

"They took our prisoners and revoked our permit. It's over."

"I have the feeling we won't hear from them any time soon," Yuri said in his Russian accent.

"Of that, you can be certain," Bishop sighed. "Let's take back the Naquadah to the island."

* * *

**Earth - Terrania**

The three agents and the stolen Naquadah were beamed by the Prometheus back to the island. They reported what happened to Klaus who was not too happy about the ending, but it wasn't anything he didn't expect. He knew the Americans would take control as soon as the Naquadah was found. Dismissing the three agents, Klaus continued preparing his report he would have to present to the next Council meeting.

Two hours later he was ready, just in time to present them to his fellow council members. The meeting was behind closed doors, sort of speak. There were no representatives there since only internal matters would be discussed today. The other eight members were already there, sitting around a large table. Everybody was doing something on their tablets or with some papers. Well, almost everybody. Jack was standing there doing nothing except looking bored. This changed when he saw Klaus approaching the table. This was the man he was waiting.

Jack waited for another moment, letting Klaus have enough time to take his place. "Now that we are all here we should begin. The first thing we need to discuss in today's agenda is the recent events regarding the stolen Naquadah. Klaus, if you please."

Klaus nodded understanding it was his time to relay his report, "As most of you already heard, we were able to retrieve the stolen Naquadah and catch a group of former NID agents responsible for stealing the Naquadah," Klaus sighed before continuing, "Unfortunately, our investigation ended there. The US government revoked the special permit that gave us authority to act on US soil, and the perpetrators were taken into their custody, effectively cutting us off of any further involvement."

Jack interjected, "… and you think the FBI, or whoever will interrogate them won't give us any more information they might find?"

Klaus nodded, "Of that I'm sure. It's what I would do if I were them."

Jack was frustrated, "So we have nothing."

"I wouldn't say exactly nothing, but yes we can't go any further," Klaus said, giving Jack a devilish smile.

Jack also smiled, knowing Klaus must have something, "Go on."

"You remember I've told you to wait for two hours before telling Mr. Coolidge about the stolen Naquadah?" Klaus said. Seeing Jack's nod he continued, "Well, in that time I placed a listening device on Coolidge's phone and I asked a few friends to monitor communications of certain people in the world. After you told Coolidge about the stolen Naquadah, he informed the President of what happened, but he also placed another call to a _friend._"

"A friend?" Jack asked.

"Yes a friend. The conversation wasn't anything special, it really looked like two people were catching up on trivial things, but what struck me was _when_ he called this friend of his," Klaus said.

Jack nodded, already knowing why Klaus was so suspicious about this call, "Immediately after the call to the President."

"Exactly. He didn't even wait for five minutes. Who calls a friend just to chat only seconds after calling the President with possibly devastating news?" Klaus explained his reasoning.

"That's true. Did you find who he called?" Daniel asked.

Klaus shook his head, "No, it was a disposable phone, but my friend tells me the same phone made two more calls before being deactivated. One of the calls was to an old acquaintance of yours," he said looking at Jack.

"Who?"

"Robert Kinsey."

Jack shrugged, "Oy."

"Wasn't he in a hospital, after a stroke or something?" Daniel asked, remembering reading about it.

Klaus smiled, "Yeah he was, but he recuperated. Rumors are he blames Jack for that."

Jack was puzzled, "Me? What did I do?"

"He fell ill after he saw the news of you put out on public display as a hero," Klaus said smiling.

"Well, at least something good came out of that charade," Jack said happily. The whole campaign, with him as a hero, had been a nightmare, but if it caused Kinsey a stroke or heart attack, he thought at least it wasn't for nothing.

"Jack!" Daniel yelled with an accusing tone.

"Daniel?" Jack said as he didn't know why he was pissed.

"Jack, it's not nice."

"It is when it's Kinsey the person in question," Jack replied evenly.

Klaus was shaking his head amused, "Anyway, it looks like they actually helped us with this."

"Helped us?" Jack asked after snapping from his little fight with Daniel.

Klaus nodded, "Think about it. Why would the former NID agents decide to move the Naquadah just now?"

Jack thought about it and came to the conclusion that Klaus was probably right, "They've decided to move the Naquadah only after they knew we were on to them."

"Yes, they probably thought they could move the Naquadah to a safer location before we could find the person who helped them obtain the Naquadah in the first place, but they probably didn't anticipate the President giving us permission to act on US soil so soon," Klaus explained what he thought happened.

Jack saw how Klaus expression had changed. There was a grim look on his face now and Jack knew the next sentence Klaus would give wasn't going to be anything good, "What is it?"

"My friends have monitored all communications that followed Coolidge's phone call, and from what he tells me, it's not good. He traced call after call and came up with a pretty large network that goes even outside the US. What he gave me it's not certain proof that someone is involved, but…" Klaus said.

"But it gives us a pretty good picture of the scope of the conspiracy," Jack finished the sentence.

Klaus nodded, "Yeah."

Jack sighed, "What can we do?"

Klaus was about to answer, but Dmitri Yurchenko, the head of the Justice Department answered first, "Nothing, we can't do anything. We have no legal rights to even tap Coolidge's phone, less all the other communications your '_friend' _traced as a result," he said looking at Klaus.

Klaus sighed, "He's right, we can't do anything."

Jack was pissed, "We can at least toss Coolidge of the island. In the ocean possibly."

Dmitri shook his head, "No we can't, unless you intend to acknowledge you listened to his conversations, and even then you have no proof the call he made was in fact to some secret organization involved in the stolen Naquadah."

Klaus interjected, "and I don't know if _tossing _Coolidge of the island would be such a good idea in the first place."

"What do you mean? He's a spy working for something like the Trust. Of course we want him off the island," Jack asked not understanding.

Klaus smiled, "You know how they say Jack, keep your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer. We now know who Coolidge is really working for and we can monitor him. This is an advantage we can't lose, especially since we have no other way to investigate this organization."

"Klaus is right, but I ask you to be extremely cautious. If they find out we are listening to the conversations of one of the representatives it will be hell to pay for us," Dmitri said.

"He's right. We're still under the microscope. Something like this could hurt us badly if it comes out," Daniel opined.

"Alright, I think we should vote on this. Who thinks we should monitor Coolidge closely, raise his hand?" Jack said and saw that everybody did. "Okay then. Klaus, you know what to do, but be careful."

Klaus smiled, "As always."

"Good, you can also add this to the overall threat assessment I've asked you to make," Jack said.

"Already done," Klaus said.

"You did? That was fast. I knew there was a reason why I gave this job to you. Let's hear it then."

Klaus cleared his voice while opening one of his folders he had in front of him, "Alright, we all know who the major bad guys are, namely the Goa'uld in our own galaxy, and the Wraith in the Pegasus. The Goa'uld are on the run. The Jaffa have been doing a very good job at chasing them around the galaxy, but I would like to mention the instability of the FJN. It is of great concern to us to not know if we will lose them due to internal instability or if they will be able to strive and provide assistance in policing the galaxy. Daniel, what news do you have?"

"Nothing good I'm afraid. The biggest problem is Gerak and the hardliners behind him. He's unwilling to compromise or even discuss anything that would change the Jaffa from being warriors to something else. He just can't understand that to run an entire nation, things can't stay as they are now," Daniel answered dryly.

"Can we '_somehow'_ force Gerak out and place someone more inclined to changes?" Klaus asked.

"Not that I know of. He's just too powerful right now. He has the control of almost one third of the FJN fleet, something that the Jaffas use as their most important factor when deciding who will lead their council," Daniel answered.

"Then, we must plan accordingly. We must increase our military assets considerably in the event we lose the FJN."

Paul Bradshaw, head of the Resource department wasn't so sure about it, "We are already maxing out our production capacity. We just don't have the Naquadah and Trinium needed to build any faster."

"When do you think we can increase our production, or what can we do to accomplish that?" Jack asked.

"We can only wait until the Naquadah mine on the asteroid is completed and when the mines on Tollana can start giving Trinium out. I expect six to eight months until that happens," Paul answered referring to the asteroid full of Naquadah that Anubis used to attack Earth and their project to colonize Tollana. The planet had a large deposit of Trinium and it was perfect for colonization.

Klaus scratched his head thinking, "I don't like it. Add to the problems we have in this galaxy the threat of the Wraith in Pegasus, and we have a clear picture of how screwed we are. And all this is without the other threats in this galaxy."

"What other threats?" Jack asked.

"That's the point, isn't it?" Klaus told the group of colleagues who clearly didn't know what he was talking about. "In the past ten years the Stargate program encountered many enemies like the aliens that gained access to the SGC with the mimicking device or the Aschen who have no problem using chemical weapons to commit genocide. We have no idea of their capabilities, or if they still pose a threat."

"We didn't hear anything from them in a long time," Daniel stated.

"That doesn't mean they're not preparing some nasty surprise for us. The job of any intelligence agency isn't only to provide information for those with who we are currently at war. The agency's job is to provide information to any and all possible threats and we currently have no such information."

"That's why you've been harassing me for the last month or so to build you those ships as soon as possible," Jack said understanding something.

"What ships… and why?" Daniel was asking because he wasn't here the last month and he didn't know a lot of things that happened lately.

Sam was the one to answer, "We had to develop a new kind of vessel, smaller than an Al'kesh but still capable of FTL travel and with a cloaking device so TIA agents could use it for surveillance and espionage around the galaxy."

"And how are we progressing on that front?" Klaus asked Sam.

"The first of the three commissioned ships are going to be ready next month. A month after that the other two will be ready as well."

"It's better than nothing I suppose," Klaus responded not very happy with the delay.

"Oh come on Klaus, you know we don't have the resources," Jack said irritated.

"I know Jack, but that doesn't change the fact we are blind. We don't have any intel on our enemies, except what we get from the Tok'ra and you know exactly how much that is. You saw their last report saying the Lucian Alliance is gaining power at a staggering pace. If we continue like this we can end up with enemies at our doorstep without even knowing it," Klaus said a little pissed.

"Fine, I promise I'll give your department priority in the coming months to build as much assets as you need," Jack said trying to calm him down. "Now, is there anything else we should worry about?"

"No nothing else," Klaus said calming down.

"Good, Paul you talked about our resources being low. Can we do something about it?" Jack asked.

"Maybe we can increase the excavation of the other mines by ten percent, but that's not our only problem. We are still very reliant on Earth for anything else, and our budget is low until we sell them some new tech to increase our funding's," Paul said pausing for a moment. "There is one thing we could do, but I'm not sure they will go for it. We could sell Earth some precious metals we don't need."

"Doesn't the proposal we stipulated says we can't sell platinum, gold or silver because it would crash their price on the global market and destabilize the entire economy?" Jack said.

"That's true, but I'm not talking about those metals, I'm talking about metals that are rare on Earth, but are not tied up in the economy like gold. For example Rhodium is one of the rarest metals on Earth, consequently his price is almost twice that of gold. If we can sell those metals, plus the sale of new technologies, we could quadruple our current budget."

"Alright, it doesn't cost us anything to try it. Where are we standing with the tech we want to give Earth?"

"Depends. Are we going the easy way or the right way?" Paul said.

"Meaning?" Jack said.

"It means we can choose technologies the governments of the Alliance want, or technologies that are good for the planet and for the people… and no, they are not the same thing," Paul said.

Sam was the one to pick up, "He's right. If we want to progress Earth, we should give them something that produces clean energy in large quantities, medicines that can cure all kinds of diseases, and a method of transportation that can use electric energy rather than gasoline. All these things are going to be faced with an incredible opposition. We are going against the oil and the pharmaceutical companies. The medicine we give to the world won't have any patent preventing others from producing it themselves. The pharmaceutical companies won't like it one bit."

Paul nodded, "Exactly. We could end up pissing a lot of higher ups with ties with those companies, and they could also refuse to take these technologies from us and then we are screwed."

"Not if we play it right," Daniel paused, waiting to get their full attention. "If we make an announcement to the public stating we are preparing to release some new technologies that will considerably improve their lives, the governments will have no other choice than to accept. The public would hang them if they refuse free energy and medicines that can save lives and increase their standards."

"That is a really good idea, but are we prepared to piss so many influential people so soon?" Paul asked.

"Hey, if we piss some higher up we at least know we are doing a good job," Jack said smiling.

Klaus was also smiling, "We can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs, ha Jack."

"That's right," Jack said knowingly.

Dmitri was still pensive, "I don't know how many of you are watching current events on Earth, but you should remind yourself that not every country is in the Terran Alliance charter. The technology we are giving is going only to those countries and not the entire planet."

"So, where's the problem?" Jack asked not knowing where Dmitri was going with this.

"The biggest problem is China and the Middle East. The relations between China and the countries in the Terran Alliance are already precarious. How will China react to the west having even more advanced technologies making the gap between them even greater than it already is?"

"We are not involved in anything that happens between countries. We are not responsible for their pettiness and political bickering," Jack said.

Dmitri shook his head, "This is where you are wrong. What good it does if we succeed in protecting the planet against aliens from other planets, if at the same time a World War III starts as a result of some of our actions. You are right when you say we are not responsible for what happens between countries, legally I mean, but morally, I'm not so sure."

"Alright, I get your point. So what can we expect if we follow Daniel's plan and release the news to the public?"

"The first thing will be a sudden drop of petrol on the world markets, and when I say sudden I mean a drop to less than a pack of cigarettes for every barrel. Then you can expect some pretty angry calls from presidents around the globe, maybe even threats. You know, the usual when people are mad at you," Paul said.

"Okay, I can live with that. What else? What about China?" Jack said.

"I don't expect anything from China if we go with the energy and medicine stuff, but we need to be careful if we decide to put some other technologies that can be construed as weapons. I also think we should offer them the mining agreement and get a contract before we go out with the public announcement," Paul opined.

Dmitri chuckled, "You want a binding contract with them before they get all pissed off by the announcement. Smart, but I think they'll find a way to make us pay for this in some other way. If not now, then on a later time for sure."

Paul smiled, "Of course I do. If we present the offer after, they can decline it just for spite."

"Alright, I think we have reached some decisions. Paul, make the proposal; Sam, you make the list of tech we are giving them, and Klaus, you stay on Coolidge. Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

Jack hoped nobody would say anything, but that wasn't the case. Everybody had something important that needed to be addressed. Lisa Giacomini, Head of the Education Department wanted to use some kind of memory device to help people learn faster. Jack knew about the device, the military already wanting it to train their troops in conjunction with the virtual reality device. Everybody agreed, but no children would use those devices until a much longer period of intensive testing passed. Jacques Dupont, Head of the Colonization Department wanted to talk about the increase in funding for his department. He didn't get it and he wasn't happy about it. Jack promised he'd be next on the list once they increased their budget. Emily Watson, Head of the Health Department wanted clarification on what to research first. They had so much new knowledge, mostly coming from Atlantis, that they didn't know where to bang their heads first. Sam joined in complaining for the same reason, making the conversation go on and on for another half hour. By then Jack was frustrated, hungry and utterly bored. He wanted to leave but, as some member had pointed out recently, he was the Chairman and the Chairman had to participate in all the meetings and stay there until the end. At that moment, Jack didn't like Daniel very much. Daniel also wanted to discuss his department needs, but seeing Jack's expression he decided it could wait, knowing when it was time to stop poking the bear. The meeting finally ended and they all went their separate ways. It's been a long meeting and Jack didn't like the idea of going to his office to probably listen to more complaints from his own department. So he decided to take a walk and think about what happened recently. He thought everything was going great, but he knew the axe would soon fall and he needed to be prepared when it happened. What troubled him the most was that he didn't know from which direction it would fall first. Would it be from Baal, or would it happen in the Pegasus galaxy first. The worst part was that he thought it would come from Earth and he really didn't have the time or energy to worry about that too. One thing he knew for sure was that Klaus was right. Their intelligence was awful and, until Klaus had mentioned it, he didn't even think about all the races they'd crossed paths with and ended up on opposite sides. The Aschen, a race that has no problem committing genocide, a race that before Earth came in possession of advanced technology, was almost a hundred years more advanced than Earth. Who knows what they could do, or even worse, what they were already doing. Then there's the Lucian Alliance, incredibly powerful for just a bunch of pirates. They could pose an even greater threat to Earth than the Goa'uld and to top it all, the FJN was on the brink of collapsing and he, or anyone else, didn't know how to prevent it from happening. Then he remembered that not everything looked so bad. The Asgard were on the rise, and they were here to help. There was also Liam, the mysterious Ancient that helped them on many occasions. Jack thought Liam would play a crucial role in future events and he knew he was on their side. The Nox and the Asgard showing up and fully supporting Liam's proposal showed Jack how much the man had influence with those races, and having such influence with those races wasn't a small thing.

Jack sighed, looking at the night sky. He moved away from the balcony, it was time to go to bed. Tomorrow was going to be another day, with more problems to solve and new adventures to play.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Unknown Location**

The Terrans weren't the only one who had a meeting that day. Gerak was standing in a dark room with several other Jaffa. They were also discussing their future.

Gerak slammed his fist on the table in front of him, "I had enough of the Tau'ri and their meddling in our affairs. Who they think they are, telling _ME_ how to run our nation!"

"Teal'c and Bra'tac think the Tau'ri are trying to help," said another Jaffa.

"Then they are fools!" Gerak was spitting venom from every pore in his body. "The Tau'ri are trying to control us, they want to turn us into farmers and simple workers."

"It is true that we need to provide food for our people," The same Jaffa opined, making Gerak even angrier.

"We do not need to become farmers to feed our people. There are many human worlds that will gladly provide us the food we need."

"And if they do not?"

"Then we make them, the same way we'd done in the past," Gerak said with an evil grin.

"We still don't have the majority in the Council. They will not go against the Tau'ri who will most certainly object."

"Then we will not ask the Council for permission and if the Tau'ri object, we will deal with them as well."

"What about the Asgard, they will stand behind them?"

"What Asgard? They are only a myth. They have not done anything in the war against the Goa'uld and that tells me they are not as powerful as everyone thinks they are. No, the only obstacle for us is the Tau'ri, and they have their hands full with the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy. We are the one who have the power in this galaxy, not them and we will not let them dictate terms."

The others nodded sharing Gerak's resolve.


	4. Chapter 4: Changes

**Author's note: **This is the latest chapter in this story with a little more action than the previous one. The last one was more about what the Terrans are doing with their newly formed organization and the problems they are facing. This one on the other hand, takes a much larger scope. Since nobody reviewed the last chapter, it would be a nice way to make up for it if you post a review after you've read this one. After all, it takes only a minute to do it, so...

Thanks for reading my story and I hope you are enjoying it as much as I'm while writing it.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Aboard Liam's ship**

Liam had been working in his lab for the past few days. It was the only place he could work and only while traveling through hyperspace if he didn't want any ascended being to eavesdrop on him. He needed to complete the device that he intended to use to imprison Anubis without them knowing about it and he needed it done as soon as possible. He didn't know why Aenea had warned him not to interfere with the bastard. He thought there was no good reason to leave him free to roam the galaxy and do whatever he wanted, no matter what they say. He believed he knew why his ascended brothers and sisters, in their apparently unlimited wisdom, didn't want him to interfere. They wanted to punish Oma for her mistake in helping Anubis ascend. It was a mistake, a grave one, and Oma should be punished, but he didn't share their method on how. In Liam's opinion, it was a cruel way to punish someone, leaving her to watch all the atrocities Anubis had done and still would do in the lower plane while unable to do anything to stop it. This was one reason why he was angry at them, but the real reason why Liam was so pissed and why he had continued working on the device that would hopefully entrap Anubis, was because of all the lives that would be lost in the meantime. He still couldn't understand how they could decide for a punishment in which living beings in the lower plane would pay the ultimate price for Oma's mistakes.

Liam smiled. The device was ready or, at least, that was what the readings were telling him. There was no test that could prove with a hundred percent certainty the device would be able to trap an ascended being. Only a real test would. He moved closer to the device to check it one more time, but stopped in his tracks. He suddenly felt dizzy, feeling a weakness in his legs, all of a sudden incapable of holding his weight. Liam dropped to the floor, slowly losing consciousness.

Liam woke up an hour later in the sickbay. The VI had automatically sensed something was wrong and had teleported Liam the moment he'd lost consciousness. Liam took a moment to regain his bearings before deciding to sit on the medical bed. The VI was standing next to him the whole time, looking at him intently. Actually to Liam it looked more like he was pissed at him than anything else.

"What happened?" Liam grumbled with a sore throat.

"Your arrogance caught up with you, that's what happened."

Liam cleared his throat, also trying to understand what the VI meant by that, "What?"

"You remember your little experiment you did when you descended? You are finally seeing the fruits of your brilliant idea."

"You think that's the cause of this? How can you be sure?"

"When you dropped like a sack of potatoes, I teleported you here and run some tests. Your body is changing and as a result you had a chemical imbalance that caused your sudden weakness," the VI explained. "You know, if I had a body, I could've done much more than just beam you up here and run tests."

'_Oh not with the body thing again,'_ Liam thought. "What did the scans show exactly?"

The VI virtually sighed, understanding they were apparently not going to talk about his body. "You're changing, somewhere on the predicted evolutionary line, but the process is still causing some unwanted side effects. I also believe _you_ not taking enough rest precipitated things quite a bit."

"It shouldn't have, I slowed down the process considerably. My body should have had the time to adapt to all the changes," Liam said more to himself than to the VI.

"As I said, you are taxing your body and mind too much. After you woke up from the stasis pod almost two years ago, you went to work and you haven't had one day of rest ever since. Even without the changes you should feel tired. With them, your body just can't handle them and if you continue like this your arrogance could cost you much more than suddenly losing consciousness."

"Hey, when you talk about my arrogance you're talking about _your_ arrogance as well. We were one back then, remember," Liam replied a little pissed at the VI's condescending tone.

"Yeah, I really don't know what got into me back then," the VI replied back with a smirk on his face.

"What's done is done, there's no going back."

"Unfortunately, you're right, but we should take precautions from now on. Regular checkups, more rest, even a vacation from time to time would be in order, and I'm strongly recommending you give me a body."

'_Here we go again,' _Liam thought. "Fine, I'll come up with something, but no nanite body."

"What, you're afraid I'll go replicator on you?" the VI said a little offended.

"To tell you the truth, yes I am. After seeing all the troubles Atlantis is having with the Asurans, I'm more inclined in finding another way to make you a body. Besides, Thor wouldn't like it either. He would probably never set foot on this ship again."

"Fine, but don't make this last too long. Your perfectionism tends to delay results… A LOT," the VI replied, again with a condescending tone.

"Again, same person here, remember," Liam said pointing his finger between the two of them.

"And you have to always remind me, don't you. Besides, I think perfectionism is a good trade for a ship's computer. For you on the other hand… not so much," the VI retorted with a smug expression.

"Great, I created a monster with the sense of humor," Liam said while jumping off the bad, checking if his legs would hold him. They did and he was glad there was no dizzy feeling anymore. "So where are we?"

The VI looked distracted for a moment while checking the ship's data, "We are entering the Pegasus galaxy as we speak. We should reach the outpost in less than an hour."

"Good. The device is finished; beam it into the storage area. I don't want for any ascended being to find it on the lab's table after we exit hyperspace."

"Aren't we a little too paranoid?"

"Maybe, but I want to be on the safe side with this. I have a feeling they are watching me, Aenea wouldn't have said anything if they weren't."

The VI nodded, "As you wish."

"Good, let's walk to the bridge. It will do me some good to move a little," Liam said, moving toward the sickbay's door. The sickbay was almost half a mile from the bridge and usually Liam would use the internal teleportation system to move around.

"I've told you, you need a _real_ vacation, but somehow I know you won't listen so I have to agree, a walk is better than nothing."

"Ah, you know me so well," Liam sighed, moving outside the sickbay with the VI in tow.

"Have you at least made some tests to monitor your progress since you woke up?"

"No, I didn't have the time," Liam replied with a sheepish expression.

"Idiot," the VI murmured.

"Hey! Don't make me _make you_ a profanity subroutine that will make you beep every time you say something like this," Liam said in a threatening manner, realizing to late his grave mistake.

The VI looked at Liam with narrowed eyes, "Really."

Liam didn't have the time to apologize when he found himself inside a storage room, the most distant room from the bridge there was. You didn't need to be clairvoyant to understand that the internal teleporters wouldn't work either, "I stand corrected, you _DON'T_ have a sense of humor," Liam yelled, knowing the VI would hear him wherever he was on the ship. He sighed before starting to walk. It would take him more than an hour to reach the bridge from here on foot.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy - Defiant's bridge**

The Defiant, the seventh ship of that class to be built and named that way because Liam liked the name O'Neill gave to the ship, was traveling through hyperspace. After having watched a few episodes of Start Trek DS9, Liam understood why O'Neill named the ship that way. There was a clear resemblance between the two ships except maybe for the nose section, which was much shorter than in the series, but still so similar that made Liam wonder how he had come up with a design so similar to the one in the series. Or the better question was, how did the authors of the series come up with such a design. The other ships in the series were nothing like it.

The ship was traveling through hyperspace toward a planet where intel was suggesting the Wraith had an outpost. They wanted to do some espionage there and maybe even find some useful data that would help them in the fight against the _space vampires_ that plagued the Pegasus galaxy. Liam knew he didn't have the necessary strength for a direct confrontation with the Wraith, nobody had. He didn't even know how many ships they had or how many planets were under their control, but he knew it was too many to confront them directly. The only other way he knew on how to fight them was through sabotage and raid attacks, but for that, he needed intel. The Defiant's job was to reach the planet undetected and plant a team that would infiltrate the outpost and steal as much data as possible. Hopefully, the outpost would have something of some value, something that he could use. After the mission was over, the team would destroy the wraith's outpost and by doing so they would also clean up any evidence they were ever there. Secrecy was still a big issue for Liam. That was the plan. What happened was another matter entirely.

The captain of the Defiant was sitting in his chair, mildly annoyed by the long and uneventful journey. The Defiant was a fast ship, but after spending a week on several missions in a row and without a break, the mileage climbed up pretty fast. To make things worse the Defiant hadn't been designed with comfort in mind. The crew had to do with the space they had and it wasn't much. Beside small accommodations, where they could have some privacy, the ship had only the bridge that was not much more than a small room where even three people made it crowded, and the sickbay and engineering room that were off-limits if you weren't sick or an engineer respectively.

"What's our ETA?" the Captain asked the helmsman in front of him.

"Less than two minutes," he replied.

"Finally," the Captain exclaimed. "Engage the cloak the moment we get out of hyperspace. We don't know what kind of sensors they have there."

They waited for another two minutes or so before the ship decelerated, a clear sign they were exiting hyperspace. What happened next wasn't what they expected or even planned for.

The ship rocked violently. Thankfully the crew was strapped to their chairs or they would have flown into the air, probably hitting a wall and breaking every bone in their body. The system had automatically sensed the danger and raised the shields, something that saved all their lives as well as the ship.

"What the hell happened? Did we hit something?" the Captain yelled.

The pilot, having seen what hit them through his eyepiece, was already taking evasive actions, "No time to talk Cap, we have a Hive on our starboard side."

"Dammit, there shouldn't be any hives here! Take us out of weapons range and engage the FTL drive. We are leaving," the Captain yelled as fast as he could.

"Trying sir, but our ship feels a little sluggish," the pilot replied while flying the ship.

"We have a no go on the FTL and the inertial dampeners are working at only fifty percent capacity," the other crewmember added.

"Shit! Can we at least cloak, or outrun them with our sublight engines?"

"No Captain, with the inertial dampeners damaged we weight a few tons too much for that, and I wouldn't recommend using the cloak. They could hit us when our shields our down and one hit from that hive will vaporize us in an instant," the second crewmember explained their predicament even though he didn't know if they would ferry any better even with the shields up.

"Send a distress call, and try to use the planet's curvature to shake them. Even damaged we're more maneuverable than they are."

It was a good plan to use the planet's gravity to slingshot the ship. The hive was too large to make such a tight turn without risking some serious damage or the risk of overshooting their pray, but the question still was, for how long could they do that. The answer came when dozens if not hundreds of darts spewed from the massive hive. The small ship made a tight turn around the planet, making some distance between them and the hive that had to take it through a much higher orbit in order to not overshoot or worse, break apart. In contrast, the darts didn't have such a problem. On the contrary, they'd gained some distance as being able to take an even tighter turn than the damaged Defiant. The darts were already in weapons range, shooting at the fleeing ship that was putting everything he had in the sublight engines, but still more and more darts were closing in on them. The Defiant was also constructed as a fast and maneuverable ship that would usually chase others and not the other way around. Only the top turret was capable of shooting back at the swarm of darts and that was not good. The shields were holding for now, but it was only a matter of time before the darts would start doing some real damage since they clearly had the numerical advantage.

The captain was thoughtful. He didn't know how to get them out of this, "Status on the FTL drive?"

"Engineering says they need at least a few more hours to repair the damage," the second crewmember replied, also noticing something else, "Sir, I'm picking up a hyperspace disturbance coming this way."

"Are there any of our ships in the area?"

"No sir, I don't think so."

"Great, it means they are getting reinforcements," the Captain said frustrated.

Only seconds later, a massive hyperspace window opened ten light seconds in front of them and to their astonishment, it wasn't the Wraith. A mile long silver ship, immediately recognized as the O'Neill class Asgard battlecruiser, exited hyperspace, immediately accelerating toward them at great speed. The ship passed above the tiny Defiant while shooting at the chasing darts. The battlecruiser didn't care for the darts even when they slammed into its massive shields. They were mere mosquitos that just needed to be crushed. Passing the darts the O'Neill opened fire on the hive from his six frontal cannons. At that moment, the Wraiths on-board probably cursed why they'd never designed shields for their ships. Blow after blow followed by massive explosions on the hive were causing extensive damage to the hive ship. The Wraith were now facing a superior opponent in any way possible. Speed, maneuverability, defenses and massive plasma cannons were all on the Asgard ship's side. As the large but incredibly nimble ship continued its relentless bombardment, something critical got hit and an even larger explosion blew up an entire section of the massive hive, crippling the entire ship. Under a few well-placed shots in the already damaged area, the hive split in half with both pieces going their separate ways. The Wraith had finally met the might of the Asgard race.

At the same time, the Defiant, not being concerned with the hive anymore, was making short work of the remaining darts. Damaged or not, its weapons were still working perfectly.

The Defiant survived, but the mission was a bust. The Wraith in the outpost would have erased any important data by now if there was any. Knowing that, the captain ordered to just destroy the outpost. Four missiles flew from the Defiant into the atmosphere, reaching their target thirty seconds later. The resulting explosions were enough to leave no trace of the outpost ever being there. Again, the wraith must have cursed why they haven't spent some time developing shields instead of having slept for most of the last ten thousand years.

The Captain contacted the Asgard vessel and, moments later, the frontal display was filled with the image of Thor. "Supreme Commander Thor, I'm surprised to see you here. I'm glad though. Without your intervention we wouldn't have stood a chance of survival."

"I'm glad to be of assistance. I received your distress call while traveling to your outpost here in the Pegasus galaxy. I have a meeting there with Liam," Thor explained his reason for being here. "Do you need any assistance? My sensors are telling me your ship has sustained some damage."

"Yes. Among other things our FTL drive is offline. We would appreciate if you can tow us to the outpost."

"No problem at all. Please prepare for docking," Thor said already working on his console.

The massive battlecruiser approached the tiny Defiant, docking it bellow its rear section. Once the procedure had been completed, the ship entered hyperspace. Half an hour later, they'd reached their destination, the Defiant going straight to the shipyard for repairs, and the Asgard vessel on course for Liam's even bigger ship in orbit around the planet were the outpost was. Thor beamed down to the planet's surface to meet with Liam and Soren, the man in charge of everything Pegasus related.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy - Guardian's Outpost**

"Supreme Commander Thor, it is an honor to finally meet you." Soren greeted Thor with a slight bow.

"Likewise Commander Soren," Thor said. Not seeing Liam there, he continued, "Where is Liam?"

"Liam will join us momentarily, but I think we can start discussing the reason for you being here without him," Soren said not wanting to go into details why Liam wasn't here. His short conversation with Liam's VI had been puzzling at best. The VI explained how Liam went for a walk and that he needed more time to return. Soren didn't know much about Liam's ship, but he was more than certain the ship had internal teleporters and a beaming system.

"As you wish. I _am_ very curious for Liam's invitation to come here."

Soren nodded, turning to face the console in front of him. Moments later an image of a man was displayed on the large screen in front of them. "This is an Asuran."

Thor blinked not knowing who or what an Asuran was or why it was so important.

"The Asurans are an artificial life form composed of billions of Neutronium based nanites," Soren explained.

Thor's head almost exploded while his eyes grew almost twice the usual size, yet Thor replied with incredible composure, "They are human form Replicators."

"Yes, and they are not very friendly," Soren said.

"I did not believe they would be," Thor replied.

"That's the reason Liam wanted you here, to discuss a plan to get us rid of them."

"Indeed, this is something I would be interested in," Thor replied, really not liking the idea of replicators still being around.

Liam beamed down from his ship, sweating a little from the long walk the VI made him take. He was already thinking of a way to make the VI think twice before doing something like this ever again, but now wasn't the time. Thor was already here and it looked like they were already discussing the matter at hand, "Thor, thank you for coming. I can assume Soren has already informed you of the replicator problem in this galaxy," Liam said and seeing Thor nodding, he continued. "Good. I think we are in agreement when I say this matter needs to be resolved as soon as possible. We cannot let the replicators spread like they did in your galaxy."

"You are correct. The Asgard are prepared to do whatever is necessary to clear this galaxy of this plague. I can have a dozen warships here in the next few days. They are all equipped with the disruptor weapon."

"That's good, but the situation is a little more complex than it was in your galaxy," Liam said with some concern.

"In what way?" Thor asked.

"The human-form replicators here have the ability to adapt to the disruptor weapon after some time. Because of it, we must destroy them all at once and that won't be that easy. Also the human replicators here have been created by the Lanteans and they have their technology at their disposal. I'm not certain on how much, but from what I've seen the human-form replicators have no problem in duplicating an entire city like Atlantis."

"I see, this _can_ be a problem. How would you like to proceed?" Thor asked since Liam had more time than he had to think about the best way to approach the problem.

"First we need to capture one of their ships. From there we can find out the limits of their technology, mostly their drones and shields. I still believe the replicators haven't reached the same level as my race had and that they are only trying to imitate my people's technology. If I study their drones I should be able to find a way to make our shields more resilient to them and that is their only offensive weapon that can really hurt us. If I succeed we can launch a massive strike at their homeworld with a real chance of destroying them once and for all." Liam explained his plan.

"How many ships do they have to protect their world?" Thor asked.

"For now ten, but they are building more. There is something else that we need to take into account. The replicators have recently attacked Atlantis with their replicated city and lost it in the process. They are currently building another one and we must destroy them before they finish it."

"Why is so important if they finish the city or not?" Thor asked.

"Because I know the Atlantis' shield is strong enough to stop the disruptor weapon. I fear their city's shield, once raised, could be strong enough to stop the weapon as well, and we all know this plan will work only if we can get them all at the same time before they manage to adapt to the weapon," Liam explained to Thor.

"How much time do we have?"

"A month, maybe less."

"Then we should not waste any. Where can I find this replicator ship?" Thor asked, wanting to take the ship down as soon as possible. It had been almost two months since the last time he had used the disruptor weapon on a replicator ship and he was clearly having withdrawal symptoms.

"Soren will give you all the data you need. I must go to Earth to ask them for their help."

"Why do you want to involve the humans in this?" Thor asked.

"Because we will need as many ships as we can find. Most of your ships will be occupied surrounding the planet. You won't have much time to play with their ships and you can't use the disruptor weapon on them either because they could adapt to it. That leaves only my ships to battle theirs and I don't have that many."

"And you think that Earth can provide the necessary ships?" Thor replied.

"I hope they can bring at least four, but that depends if they are willing to send all their ships to the Pegasus galaxy," Liam explained before continuing. "With that, we should be able to keep them busy and away from your ships until it is too late. Besides, it is time to further our relationships with Earth, and what better way than by fighting a common enemy."

"Very well, we will take care of the Asuran ship in the meantime so that you can study it once you return," Soren said and Thor nodded in approval.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy - Aboard Liam's Ship**

Liam beamed back to his ship, entering hyperspace only moments later. Since Liam decided to push the ship to his limits, the voyage would last only a little more than an hour. He had no time to waste. He knew, even if the Terran agreed, it would take them at least three weeks to bring all their ships to the Pegasus galaxy.

The time it would take him to reach Earth it would be just enough to go through all the intel the Guardian Intelligence Agency (GIA) recently gathered regarding Earth and the rest of the Milky Way galaxy. He really needed to see how things were progressing. He opened the appropriate files, reading intently their content. The Jaffa were in trouble, nothing new on that front. The GIA had flagged Gerak as the leading troublemaker who was opposing any attempt made by the more liberal elements of the Jaffa who were trying to further their society. There was also mention he was trying to break relations with Earth, but he still didn't have the necessary support to achieve that goal. Too many Jaffa still believed Earth could be of some use, with Teal'c and Bra'tac being the most fervent supporters of such an alliance. Since the Jaffa were a warrior race, Liam feared Gerak would sooner or later take matters into his own hands by getting rid of his opposition in any way possible, probably the main targets being Teal'c and Bra'tac. Liam sighed, thinking about politics being the same everywhere. He made a mental note he'd have to intervene in the near future if he wanted this alliance to succeed and he knew it was paramount it did.

The Goa'uld were still strong, waiting for the FJN or Earth to slip and use the opportunity to return on the galactic scene and with Earth still unable to patrol the entire galaxy, plus the problems with the Wraith, a crumbling FJN would be catastrophic. On Earth things were looking good. The Terran Alliance was making incredible progress and in a such small period, but even on Earth there were problems he needed to pay attention to. One of the biggest problems was that China didn't enter the Terran Alliance. Liam was stunned and deeply disappointed by this turn of events. When he had proposed his plan to Jack, he wholeheartedly thought it would bring the entire planet together, but as it had turned out, Earth was split between the countries that did sign the treaty and those that were opposing it. China didn't enter the alliance because they wanted to lead the Stargate program, a very unrealistic goal that would have never happened no matter how much they wanted it. To make things even worse, they were making a coalition with the Middle East. The Middle East was more preoccupied because of new technologies the Terran Alliance would inevitably bring to the table. Mega corporations in the oil business feared their main product would soon become obsolete and they were correct in their assessment. Liam predicted how in ten years, cars on combustion engines would be a thing of the past as well as power plants on coal, diesel or uranium. The price of oil on the market was already dropping in anticipation for the next technology release scheduled for next week.

Liam read another report regarding the stolen Naquadah a month ago, trying to understand for what purpose they did it. He came up empty. There was no way they could use the Naquadah in any commercial product without leaving a trace that would lead directly back at the perpetrators. The 304s were doing scheduled scans of Earth and Naquadah has a strong signature they could pick up easily. Besides, they would need a constant resupply of the material, which they didn't have. Using the Naquadah as a nuclear weapon was a possibility, but in that case the question was, against what target would they use it and for what reason. Terrania, the island where the HQ of the Terrans was located, was too well-defended to even try attacking it and there was no other target on Earth that could hurt them. No matter what the reason was for stealing the Naquadah, Liam knew those people would be a problem that had to be solved.

The console beeped notifying Liam he had reached Earth. He hadn't even noticed how fast the time had passed while reading the reports.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Earth**

On Terrania, Jack, Sam, Daniel and the leader of the new SG-1 team, Cameron Mitchell were having a meeting.

"Daniel, what do you know about the woman?" Jack asked a little irritated.

"Nothing, except she's a pain in the ass and a thief," Daniel answered simply.

"So why the hell would you even want to listen to what she has to say?" Jack asked, really not understanding Daniel's reasons.

"Because we have nothing to lose by checking it out… and you are not letting me go to Atlantis so..." Daniel retorted, still sulking because Jack wasn't letting him go to Atlantis.

Jack had felt Daniel would use the Atlantis card even before he said anything. "For how long are you going to bring that up?" Jack said already knowing the answer.

"Until you let me go," Daniel replied.

Jack sighed. Maybe it was a good thing to let him go on this goose chase. At least he'd stop asking about Atlantis, "Fine you can go on this silly treasure hunt, but I want you to take Mitchell and Teal'c with you. I don't trust this chick one bit."

"You're letting him go?" Sam asked incredulous. "What about our deal with Earth. We can't just go around Earth searching for some Ancient treasure."

"Actually we can, if anything Ancient-related is involved." Jack replied.

That made both Sam and Daniel raise an eyebrow, "And you know that how?"

"I must have read it somewhere," Jack answered almost embarrassed.

"You _read_ it?" Sam said still unable to actually believe it.

"Don't worry, it won't happen again," Jack replied a little pissed.

"Oh, that I can believe," Daniel replied, smiling. He knew Jack's usual behavior was only a facade to throw of people, and that he actually wasn't a man that was only interested in big honking space guns, just mostly.

"Thank you for that Daniel."

"Don't mention it."

Jack had to change the subject quickly, "Alright, enough about this. Daniel, I'm telling you again, be careful with that chick, she's capable of…"

A bright beam of light surrounded Jack and he was gone.

Daniel blinked twice, "Well, that definitely means we are done here," he said while turning toward Mitchell. "Let's go find Teal'c and take this show on the road, shall we."

Mitchell nodded and they all went their way with Sam going back to her usual work.

Meantime, Jack reappeared on Liam's ship.

"…steal your pants without you even knowing..." Jack said only now realizing he wasn't on Earth anymore. He turned around, trying to get his bearings.

"Hello," Liam said, making Jack turn toward him.

"Oh, you again," Jack said a little pissed by the sudden interruption. "You know, I could have sworn we have systems designed to prevent beaming people like this."

"Well, no system is perfect, you should know that."

Jack stood still for a moment, fiddling with his fingers, "So, what do you want? Not happy with the way things are going on Earth or something…"

"Not at all, you did a great job with the Terran Alliance. Although there are a few things we will have to talk about in that regard, but that is not the reason why I'm here."

"Well, what is it?" Jack asked a little inpatient. He had the feeling it was nothing good.

"I'm here to propose a joint operation between Earth, the Asgard and my people."

"What kind of operation?"

"The kind that will get us rid of the replicators in the Pegasus galaxy," Liam answered.

Jack remained pensive for a moment, remembering his not too pleasant encounter with the Asurans less than a month earlier, "I'm listening."

"We all know they pose a serious threat to all of us, maybe an even greater threat than the replicators the Asgard had faced, but I think we have an opportunity here to take them out in one shot if we work together," Liam explained.

"You're proposing a full assault at their homeworld?"

"Yes, I do. Since the attack on Atlantis, they are trying to rebuild their city-ship that they've lost in the attack. This is the perfect moment to strike at them, and if we combine our forces, I'm certain we can succeed and there's even a bonus."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "What kind of bonus?"

"Well, the plan is to use the disruptor weapon to destroy them all in one big shot. The bonus is what remains on the planet. I for one, I'm interested in the city-ship they are constructing and also their database. The Asgard are mostly interested in the Neutronium on the planet, and you could also benefit from the facilities on the planet. Imagine being able to build ships in their shipyards and drones in their facilities plus all the ZPMs they have. I expect they have at least a dozen of them lying around."

"You would leave us the planet?" Jack asked not really knowing why he would.

"Of course, I don't need it. The Asgard also have no interest in the Pegasus galaxy and you'll need the infrastructure if you want to fight the Wraith," Liam explained his reasoning. "Just promise me you want build those aurora class ships they do and call them warships. They were never meant as such."

"Alright, I'm in. What do you need from us?"

"How many ships can you get?" Liam said.

Jack thought for a moment, "I can get you the four Daedalus class ships, but the Prometheus must remain here. I'm not comfortable sending every ship we have to another galaxy. The last time I sent all our ships, Earth got kicked pretty bad."

"I thought you wouldn't. Four ships will suffice. We could rendezvous at Lantea where I will give you the necessary modifications for your shields before we commence the attack."

"What modifications?"

"We are trying to get our hands on an Asuran ship to study his capabilities, mostly their drones. If I can get my hands on them, I can find out how to better our shields and since that's their primary weapon, it could increase our chances considerably."

"Wasn't your race the one that built the drones? Why you need theirs?"

"Because I suspect the Asuran are only imitating the Alterran technology, or at least I hope they are. If that's not the case, there will be nothing I can do to increase our chances, not in the time we have anyway. My people did a very good job with those drones."

"Alright, it will take almost three weeks for all four ships to reach Atlantis, so it's best if I start right away."

"Thank you, we'll see each other in three weeks then."

Jack nodded and Liam beamed him back in the exact place he was before. He looked around and saw nobody was there anymore. Apparently, he being beamed away was no concern to anyone. He sighed and went to find the other council members. He still had to ask the others to approve the mission, although he was more than sure there wouldn't be any problem convincing them this joint operation was a good opportunity. He found them all except for Daniel who had already disappeared on his quest. It took only fifteen minutes to convince them and give the order to the Daedalus, Odyssey, Apollo and Atlas to leave for Atlantis. He planned to bring the news to Atlantis himself tomorrow, also thankful Daniel wasn't here to find out about his trip. There was no way he could leave for Atlantis without Daniel tagging along, except for now that he wasn't here. He also knew Daniel would be pissed at him once he came back, but that was a concern for a later time. He then cursed, remembering he had forgot to ask Liam what he meant about the other thing they would have to discuss related to the Terran Alliance. He saw that Liam was for some reason preoccupied, which in turn made him anxious as well. He made a mental note he would ask Liam the next time he saw him. Not knowing what else to do and not wanting to go to his office, his most dreaded place with Walter and tons of paperwork waiting for him, he decided he should go eat something before the day was over.

In the meantime, Liam turned his ship, using his own console on the bridge rather than talking to the VI. He was still angry at him. He decided to go to the Outpost here in the Milky Way galaxy rather than going to the one in the Pegasus galaxy. There wasn't a real reason for going there, but he spent the least of his time in this galaxy and he knew that showing up from time to time was a good thing for morale and that his people would appreciate the gesture. He also thought he could use the gate there if he really had the need to cross the gap between galaxies in a hurry. He didn't know how long it would take for Thor and Soren to capture the Asuran ship they were tracking.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Guardian's Outpost**

The short trip to the outpost lasted less than five minutes and to his surprise Soren had already sent word they had the ship in custody and that, after they'd disabled the tracking system onboard, they would bring it to the outpost and start inspecting it. The fight had been so quick it was difficult to even call it a fight. Thor had exited hyperspace with the disruptor weapon already charged. Knowing exactly where the replicator ship would be, he'd fired the weapon immediately, destroying all replicators onboard. They didn't even have the time to raise their shields, let alone fire back. It was good news and Liam couldn't wait to inspect the drones. He really hoped he would find a way to change the shields so they wouldn't have to worry about the drones being able to bypass them.

Something else was waiting Liam when he reached the outpost. The guys there had pinpointed the location of a former System Lord. Liam wasn't really interested in them. He only wanted to track down Ba'al and hopefully Anubis, his real target. In his opinion those two were the only one that could represent a real threat to this galaxy. Ba'al still had a considerable force at his disposal, and Anubis being immortal and having the knowledge of the ascended beings was of even greater concern.

He was surprised to learn the System Lord Bastet was hiding almost 30.000 light years away from the Goa'uld former territory. He must have traveled for several months to cross such a distance with the hyperdrive technology the Goa'uld have at their disposal. He probably went that far so the FJN couldn't reach him in any meaningful time, them also being limited by the same hyperdrives. He was already forming a plan in his head. He needed to find where Ba'al was hiding and this was the best intel he had so far. The problem was his assets had already been redirected toward the Pegasus galaxy. With the cruisers already en route, he only had four Defiants and one destroyer here and only because those ships were unable to cross the distance between galaxies. While the destroyer had the same or even greater strength a cruiser had, the Defiant wasn't the right ship for a head on attack. The Goa'uld still had many ships at their disposal, despite the losses due to the Jaffa rebellion. One ship against who knows how many wasn't an option. Instead, Liam was planning a much more subtle approach.

Since his ship's sensors told him Galen was outside the compound at the moment, Liam beamed down to the surface. Liam admired Galen, Soren's counterpart in this galaxy. When Liam looked who would fill in these posts the first thing he needed was someone dependable, someone that could do the job even without him. Liam was too busy to be always around. He'd sometimes be out of reach for weeks or even a month and when he would come back, he needed everything to be in order. Galen would make sure that indeed everything was running smoothly and in the last two years since he appointed Galen, he didn't have one negative remark to say about the man.

"Admiring the view Galen?" Liam said while approaching Galen from the back.

Galen turned to face Liam, "Ancestor Liam, I didn't know you were coming. If I've known I would have prepared something for your arrival."

"No need Galen, we're very busy people," Liam said, smiling. He actually didn't like every time he would come here or in the Pegasus galaxy to have all those formal receptions in his name.

"That is true. These last few months have been exhausting with the overhaul of the outpost and the new installations we are building in the system."

"You know, you don't have to do it all by yourself. You can take a vacation from time to time."

Galen chuckled, "Funny, I could say the same about you. When was the last time you had a vacation?"

"Ah, but that is different. I had ten thousand years of sleep before that."

"Somehow I don't think that counts for much."

"Maybe not. The problem is I actually don't know what I would do on a vacation. Probably I would end up bored to death."

"Yeah, I have the same problem," both man sighed at the same time.

Liam broke first the silence that followed, "I read the report you sent me about the Goa'uld your people have found. Good job by the way."

"Thank you, it was only luck we found one of their cargo ships going on a remote course, so I've sent a team to investigate. The cargo brought us directly on the planet were they're hiding."

"On that note, I think we should prepare a little mission for one of our teams."

"What kind of mission?"

"The kidnapping kind. I need to find out where Ba'al is and the only one who might know are the former System Lords."

"You want to capture Bastet. It won't be easy. From what we know there's an entire fleet protecting the planet. I assume the same goes for the surface, and there is no gate on the planet."

"Yes, after so many years of spreading across the galaxy through the gate, the Goa'uld are now hiding on planets that don't have one," Liam stated ironically.

"The FJN are searching for them through the entire gate network. They can't afford to be found that way, no matter how far they travel."

"Then our only option is by ship. I want you to come up with a plan to capture Bastet and any other System Lord that might be on the planet."

"Alright, but why are you so adamant in finding Ba'al. Is he such a threat?"

"No he's not, but Anubis is and I think Ba'al knows where he is."

"Why do you think that?"

"The Kull warriors. I don't think Ba'al would have had control over them if Anubis didn't give it to him in the first place."

"There is some logic in that, but isn't Anubis half ascended? How can we go against someone like him?"

"I have a plan for that, and if it works we will finally free this galaxy of that abomination," Liam concluded with a smile on his face.

The following half an hour Liam and Galen spent discussing various topics until he got the news from Soren that they'd brought the Asuran ship at the outpost. It was time to return to the Pegasus galaxy. He was fully confident Galen would find a way to capture Bastet and when he did, he would be one step closer in finding Anubis.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy - Guardian's Outpost**

The work on the Asuran drones had been tedious and Liam still didn't have any idea on how to improve their shields. He had to admit, the replicators did a pretty good job at imitating the Lanteans. He only had one more week before their predefined rendezvous with the Terrans and he knew he needs to hurry if he wanted to have something by then.

The last test he'd made showed the drones the Asurans were making were not the same, but still every simulation he'd made with modified shields came up with no improvements. The difference was in the quality of the drones. While the Alterrans, and consequently the Lanteans, had produced drones with only a negligible margin of error in the processing core's crystalline structure, the Asuran were not so picky and most of their drones showed almost 0.005 percent divergence from the original drones. If he could only remember why this was so important and why his people made the drones with such precision, he could find a way to exploit it. Liam sighed, frustrated at not being able to remember. At one point he had believed he was becoming senile, but then he remembered it was more than a million years ago from the last time he'd actually worked on this technology. Once the drones had been designed for the first time and the machines responsible for their manufacturing were created, no one bothered anymore with the inner workings of the drones.

Liam typed at his console, making a few modifications to the shield's parameters before firing the drone. The drone flew straight through the entire length of the lab toward the shield placed at the opposite end of the large room. The drone went through the shield without even noticing it. Liam punched the table in front of him in utter frustration. Nothing he did worked.

Liam was so preoccupied with his work that he didn't notice the little gray alien standing near the lab's entrance doors.

"Is everything alright Liam?" Thor asked politely even though he knew how frustrated Liam really was.

Liam turned, startled a little, "Oh, Thor, I didn't hear you coming."

"You were very concentrated on your work. I didn't want to interrupt you," Thor said while walking toward Liam. "Is there something I can do to help? They say two heads are usually better than one."

Liam sighed, "Maybe you are right, because I'm not making any progress by myself."

"What kind of shields are you testing right now?" Thor asked, having seen the drone pass through it without a problem.

"Yours," Liam replied. Seeing Thor's baffled expression he decided to continue, "You have to keep in mind the shield I'm testing has much less strength than your ship's shields have. That is why it goes through so easily."

"Why are you not testing with the real shield's strength?" Thor asked not understanding exactly what Liam was trying to achieve.

"The drones are a remarkable piece of technology. To bypass a shield the drone mimics the shield characteristics like frequency, composition and strength. Since your shields and ours are already using as much power as they can, I'm trying to change their composition so that the drones can't adapt to them. Besides, even if we manage to make our shields stronger, it would only mean it needs more drones to go through. Every drone that is unable to breach the shield because of the shield higher strength, has a secondary function to weaken it in that specific point. By doing so it helps the next drone that hits the shield to go through. Instead, I'm trying to block the drone's ability to mimic the shield completely. This way, the drones would be able to go through the shield only if they negate the shield completely in that specific point."

"I see," Thor replied in understanding. "Your approach is sound. Am I correct in assuming that no matter how you change the shield's composition or frequency the drone is still capable of adapting?"

"Yes, that's the main problem. The drones are capable of compensating for any type of change I make. I've found a slight deviation from the Alterran version of the drones in the processing core's crystalline structure, but so far I didn't find a way to exploit that, and I don't know if I ever will," Liam replied still frustrated.

"You mentioned Atlantis' shield is capable of stopping the drones and not just because of their strength. How?"

"The Atlantis shield has many layers, all working on different frequencies so the drones are incapable of mimicking more than one layer's frequency at a time."

"Would not that stop the drones from exiting the shield dome as well?"

"Yes, but the drones have a very slow initial speed, giving the shield generators time to sync the different layers at the exact moment the drones need to exit the shield perimeter. In a similar way the shield syncs when a puddle jumper needs to go through it."

"Can we make our ship's shields the same way?" Thor asked hoping this could be the solution they were looking for.

Liam was already shaking his head, "No, not in the time we have. It would be a total overhaul of the shield generators and it would need much more power if you'd want your shields to work at the same strength as they do now, and your weapons wouldn't work either. That is the main reason why Atlantis' shield needs so much power that it needs a ZPM to work and why it doesn't use any other type of weapon."

Thor felt frustration raising, fearing maybe this conundrum wasn't solvable after all, especially in the time they had, but he wasn't about to give up so soon. After an entire minute of silence, Thor remembered something Liam said, "You said there is a deviation in the crystalline structure of the processing core. Why did you think this might help us?"

"I don't know exactly. I have the feeling there was a reason why my people used such a low tolerance when building the core, but I can't remember why. I thought, maybe the drones won't be able to achieve some higher frequency, or a specific shield composition, but so far the drones were able to mimic every shield I put in front of them."

"What does the core do exactly?"

"That's the most important piece of the drone. The core is responsible for detecting the shield's composition in time and change the outer shielding of the drone almost instantly. Then it is only a matter of if the drone's outer shielding is as strong as the targeted shield, and if it is, the drone is able to go through."

"Almost instantly? Is it possible that because the core is not made with the same specifications your people built them, this process lasts longer?" Thor said thinking of something.

"Yes it's possible, but the difference should be negligible," Liam said not understanding where Thor was going with this.

"With our current shields I would have to agree, but what if we make our shields change faster than the drones can?"

Liam stopped for a moment, thinking about what Thor just said, "You mean we make our shields constantly change their frequency so fast that the drones are unable to catch up?"

Thor nodded in confirmation, but Liam wasn't looking anymore. He was already working on the console in front of him. The shield on the other side started changing his frequency, consequently making it constantly change color. The changes were by only a few hertz at a time, but it was happening so fast it made the changes visible even to the naked eye. Liam fired the drone toward the shield on the opposite side of the lab, traveling the distance in less than a second. The difference was that this time the drone didn't go through. Instead it bounced off the shield, hitting a wall in the lab.

"Thor, you are a genius!" Liam exclaimed.

'_Tell me something I don't know,' _Thor thought. "I'm glad to be of assistance."

"This is indeed great news. If the drones on the ship are any indication, then less than ten percent of them are made to such specs that could provide a challenge for our shields, and from what I saw here we won't have any problem modifying, both yours, or my ships," Liam said, knowing that the Terran ships were using Asgard shielding, meaning they could change them as well.

"That is indeed great news, at least for us," Thor said already cherishing the moment when he would face the replicators in battle. He was only regretting the fact that his ships would have to spend most of their time taking position around the planet in preparation for the final attack with the disruptor weapon instead of shooting at the Asuran's ships like he would want.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Atlantis**

The next week passed by in close collaboration between the three races. All ships were already here in Lantea's orbit, waiting for the go ahead. Their shields had been modified to block the Asuran drones as much as it was possible in the short time they had. Liam managed to upgrade even further their ability to shift frequency even faster than the first tests had showed.

Liam, Thor, Weir and Sheppard were sitting in the conference room already discussing how to divide the spoils of war as if the battle was something of the past and not something that was only about to begin, and most of all still with an uncertain outcome. The only one who was still missing was Jack. He had been adamant he must be present before the mission began, but he was delayed by some unforeseen event in the Milky Way galaxy. Still, the others didn't have to wait for long when the gate activated and Jack came through. A rather pissed off Jack if his expression was any indication. He walked straight to the conference room without saying anything to anyone, which was strange, since it was a very unusual thing for Jack not to say at least a few silly words to anybody. To the people waiting in the conference room it was almost immediately obvious the atmosphere changed drastically once he entered the room. It was as if a large dark cloud entered the room at the same time as Jack did.

Weir didn't think twice before asking the question everybody was already thinking, "What's wrong Jack?"

Jack had taken his seat as if he didn't even hear Weir's question, only replying once he was settled down and after having taken several deep breaths in order to calm down, "Daniel pulled one of his stunts again and he almost died as a result."

"What happened?" Weir asked again, now even more intrigued, but at the same time relieved Jack said that Daniel 'almost' died.

"He found some kind of Ancient communication device and of course, without thinking twice, used it right away. It turns out his consciousness was hurled half across the universe inside the body of some human there. The worst part was when the people there tried to burn him and that chick Vala alive because they didn't follow some teachings of the Ori or something like that. Mitchell saved them the last moment by tossing the communication device in the gate's wormhole."

Liam face started to change color, from pale to burning red. Thor was the first to notice the disturbance in the force emanating from the man sitting on his left.

"Mother fucker!" Liam yelled barely containing his rage and frustration. He stud up, pacing up and down, the entire time speaking in Alterran. Even Thor had trouble understanding what he was saying, mostly because of the swearing and cursing involved. The others on the other hand didn't understand a word he was saying, but from Liam's behavior they could imagine it wasn't anything good. Thor listened intently to Liam's wrangling, changing expression from utter disbelief to astonishment on how much cursing words the Alterran language has. He took the opportunity when Liam stopped for a moment to actually ask him to explain in a more calm and understanding manner. Liam turned answering to the little gray alien in his native language, spitting almost thousand words a minute. He stopped, looking at Jack for a second before storming out of the conference room and by doing so, startling everybody there even more because they didn't even know there was a sliding wall in the room that connected the conference room with the outside balcony.

Thor meekly closed his eyes while shaking his head in resignation, "Oy."

Jack waited for a moment before turning toward Thor, "Thor, is it just me or Liam looks really pissed?"

"Indeed," Thor said simply. "Apparently you inadvertently have made contact with the Alterran archenemies, the Ori. If I have understood Liam correctly, the ascended Alterran have spent a lot of time and energy concealing the existence of humans in this region of space, but now that they know of your existence, they will come."

"Oh, that's why he's pissed. Well, I'd be pissed too in his place," Jack said, _really _not liking the information he was getting.

Liam returned inside the conference a little calmer than he was moments ago, "Tell me this is some kind of a sick joke. Tell me that Daniel didn't say anything that could track down the location from where he came," Liam asked, already suspecting what Jack's answer would be.

Jack blinked twice, almost not wanting to answer, "No is not a joke and yes, he did tell them who he was."

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Liam cursed, dropping in his chair with his hands covering his face in frustration.

"Liam, please tell us what is going on," Weir asked clearly frightened by Liam's reactions.

Liam sighed, "The Ori are the Alterrans lost brothers from the time we lived in the same galaxy. That was more than ten million years ago. There was a conflict of ideologies between our people. My people believe in science and through science we have always tried to further ourselves and our understanding of the universe. The Ori on the other hand are very religious. Their religion, Origin, is the cornerstone of their society. Inevitably, a war ensued among our people. We were always a peaceful race so we decided to leave our home galaxy and travel as far as we could so we could start over someplace else. We didn't know much about the Ori from that point on, until my people started ascending. We found out they have also ascended to a higher plane of existence in a similar way as we did. We understood that, even as ascended beings, there was a difference between us and the Ori. While we believe beings in the lower plane of existence should have freedom of choice and that ascended beings shouldn't interfere with the lower plane of existence, the Ori force humans to believe in Origin, their religion. And when I say force them I mean in the way 'believe in Origin or die' kind of way."

"That doesn't sound too good." Jack said really not liking were this conversation was going.

"That is a big understatement, I can assure you. From as long as my race existed we've spent a lot of time and effort shielding this region of space from them so they wouldn't know there were humans here. Now that they know, they'll come here."

"What do you mean, they will come. Can't your people stop them?" Jack asked.

Liam sighed, "The Ori, yes… maybe… well, I'm not sure. The fight between our two races would probably end up in mutual destruction, but their followers are another story. As you know my ascended brothers and sisters don't believe in interfering with the lower plane of existence. They won't act against other humans if they come here no matter what they do, even if it will cost them their own existence."

"How would that cost them their own existence?" Weir asked.

"The Ori take power from their followers, some kind of energy transfer that makes them stronger. If they succeed in converting enough humans in this galaxy, they'll be strong enough to attack and win against the ascended beings in this galaxy."

"They suck the energy out of their followers?" Jack asked a little incredulous.

"In essence, yes. While their followers pray the Ori, they are actually giving them permission to steel their life's energy, almost like a wraith sucks the life energy from their victims. The process is much slower in the Ori case, so that their followers don't sense the drain, but they have billions of followers so, you do the math."

"Well, from what Daniel told me, their followers are actually simple peasants. I don't think they could pose a threat to us, even if they come here." Jack said, but he already knew there was a catch.

"No, their followers alone wouldn't be a problem, but when the Ori will give them the necessary knowledge to build the most powerful warships you've ever seen, you'll change your mind," Liam replied.

"Oh, that _really_ doesn't sound good," Jack said, suddenly feeling very tired.

"Again, understatement," Liam answered simply. "But all this is a matter we'll have to discuss on a later occasion. Now is even more important that we succeed in destroying the replicators, so we won't have to worry about them in the future. I apologize for my outburst earlier, but it screws up a lot of my plans."

"No need to apologize. After you explained I think your reaction was more than appropriate," Jack said with a frown.

The conversation shifted to a more current topic, namely the battle they had been preparing for the last three weeks. The last preparations had been made, the fleet ready and waiting in orbit and the only thing left to do was to give the go ahead.

Liam beamed to his ship waiting patiently in orbit with his frontal view displaying the marvelous blue planet and the fleet already assembled for battle. Twelve O'Neill class battlecruisers were visible in the left corner of the large frontal view while on the right side, there were four Daedalus ships in a tight formation. The Guardian ships weren't visible, the six cruisers and two destroyers were waiting behind Liam's ship. Liam took three cruisers from the Milky Way galaxy and sent them here in preparation for the battle. They'd need every ship they could get if they were to succeed and that also meant they needed to minimize their losses. Even if they won the battle, but lost too may ships in the process, nobody would call it a victory.

Liam called the VI, telling him to notify the fleet to leave orbit. All ships turned away from the planet, all opening a hyperspace window once free of the gravitational pool of the planet.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asura**

If nothing else, everybody could agree the replicators were born builders. They don't need any sleep or rest, no need to eat or drink, all of that making them the perfect building machines, working as long as is needed to finish the task at hand. How good they were was immediately apparent from the increased number of ships in orbit around their homeworld. Three weeks ago there were ten warships, now there were thirteen. At that pace, in a few more months, they would have had enough ships to win against any foe. Thankfully, they didn't have those few months and the city was still unfinished.

Another thirteen ships, four belonging to the Terrans and the others to the Guardians, exited hyperspace three light-minutes from the Asuran planet on a direct intercept course for the ships in orbit. The replicators, taking only a split second to decide, ordered their ships to move forward with a very simple directive. Stop the intruders at all cost.

Colonel Coldwell looked at the replicator ships turning towards them, powering their massive engines and pushing their ships at maximum speed, "Here we go people. We all know what to do so, no screw ups. Is that understood?"

A chorus of _'yes sir' _thundered throughout the ship's bridge.

"Good, activate the shields modifications and prepare to engage the enemy," Coldwell ordered.

"Modifications active and working as advertised. All stations reporting full readiness sir," an officer replied.

"Coordinate with the other ships, I want a tight formation. What's our ETA?" Colwell asked.

"Forty seconds 'till weapons range."

Coldwell nodded while sensing the tension on the bridge raising, with the remaining forty seconds feeling more like four hours than mere moments before battle. He looked at his console showing the countdown slowly diminishing until it finally reached zero…

"Fire!" Caldwell ordered.

All ships fired at once, something they'd decided they would do in the briefing they had earlier. Not all ships had the same range of fire, but for maximum effect they'd decided to fire only when all ships were in weapons range. Beams of energy streaked from the Guardian's cruisers at the same time as the four Daedalus fired their plasma pulse cannons. Both weapons impacted on the shields of the approaching warships with their shields glowing brightly from the massive strain, but the shields didn't falter. The replicators had also fired their drones, but the drones were much slower than the various energy weapons were. Nevertheless, the drones reached their targets only seconds later, exploding on impact with the ships' shields that were constantly rotating their frequency and keeping them from passing through. None were able to pass the modified shields.

The alliance ships closed the remaining distance, suddenly changing their tactic. Except for Liam's ship, all alliance ships were much smaller than the Asuran warships and most importantly much more maneuverable. They all broke the tight formation they were in, with every ship taking a different vector. They were all taking evasive maneuvers, probably confusing the hell out the replicators. It wasn't the best tactic they could use and that was apparent to everyone who watched the battle unfold. The Asuran's warships were using drones that were capable of hitting their target easily enough even when a ship was making evasive maneuvers. On the other hand, evasive actions usually would diminish the ship's ability to use their energy weapons efficiently, making the ship score much less hits than if they used a more aggressive approach. The reason why they used this apparently wrong tactic came in mere second when the apparent evasive actions ended up with all alliance ships on the outside, with the thirteen Asuran's warships in the center. Two things happened next, all alliance ships fired their nuclear ordinance at the warships, and the twelve Asgard battlecruisers exited hyperspace. Nine of them exited close to the planet's orbit, just enough to not risk hitting the atmosphere, and three taking position around the thirteen Asuran warships. The fired nuclear ordinance didn't damage the warships, their shields too strong to be overpowered by such a weapon, but it didn't matter. For a short period of time the warships were completely blind, the radiation all around them too great for their sensors to compensate.

Thor's ship descended into the planet atmosphere, with the other eight battlecruisers doing the same just on a slightly different course. The replicators were firing drones at the approaching ships, but they didn't even fire back; there was no reason for that.

Thor watched his display, showing twelve icons representing the O'Neill battlecruisers. More and more icons were turning green, notifying Thor they were in position and ready to fire. When the last icon turned green, Thor moved the stone in front of him and twelve disruptor weapons from twelve battlecruisers fired at the same time. Nine weapons covered the entire Asuran complex and the three in space did the same with the surrounded enemy fleet. In mere seconds, there were no more replicators in the entire system, all turned into nanite dust. Even better, their precise timing saved every ship in the fleet from being damaged or, worse, destroyed.

While Liam's ship and the three O'Neills remained to watch the now empty Asuran ships, the rest sped toward the planet's orbit. It was time for the next stage of their plan; it was time to drop troops inside the Asuran complex. The Asgard were constantly monitoring the planet for any activity, but they were smart enough to know that that didn't mean anything when dealing with the replicators. On too many occasions the replicators had been able to fool their sensor to trust them completely. Twelve Guardian's teams and twelve Terran teams beamed inside the massive complex. Their first task was to steal all the ZPMs. There were two reasons why they'd decided to do it. The first and most important was because they wanted to shut down the entire complex. Even if somehow, some replicators survived the disruptor weapon, they would be on the mercy of the orbiting ships above the complex once the power was out. The second reason was because even if the plan failed they would at least have the ZPMs as a reword. It was actually Jack's idea to beam the ZPMs as soon as they detached them from their pedestals. If it turned out the replicators somehow managed to survive, they would nuke the entire planet with everything they got, probably sending for more nukes a few times just to be sure.

Thor watched as a part of the complex's power grid shut down once the team managed to detach the ZPM located in that section. For now everything was going as predicted and he was very pleased. That should have been enough to warn him, knowing from experience that it is never THAT easy.

Rodney was working on the console in front of him trying to disengage the last ZPM. He was actually spending more time explaining to Ronon that it wasn't a very good idea to shoot the damn console and hope it would release the ZPM. The problem was, as more and more ZPMs were being pulled out, the system was becoming more and more uncooperative, trying to divert power from the remaining ZPMs and since this was the last ZPM, the system was blocking his release.

"You NEVER, and I can't stress this point enough, you NEVER shoot at a plugged ZedPM, do you understand that?" Rodney yelled at Ronon, almost losing it.

"Why not?" Ronon asked smiling. He actually knew why, but messing with Rodney was too much fun for passing it out.

"What do you mean 'why not'," Rodney replied not believing what he was hearing. "It's simple. A ZedPM is a big power source. You shoot it and you get a big boom."

"How big?"

"What do you mean 'how big'? VERY BIG!" Rodney replied in exasperation.

"Big like this room big or big like the time you blew up that planet big?"

Rodney was so red it looked as if they wouldn't even need a ZPM to blow up the planet. "OH, COME ON! When are you going to let that go," Rodney said clearly angry. "…and yes, THAT big if you really want to know."

"RODNEY!" John had to stop this or they would spend the rest of the day here discussing, "Pull that thing out of there and let's go. We don't have all day."

"He started it!" Rodney replied like a twelve year old.

"I don't care who started it? You finish it!" John yelled unzipping his front pocket and showing Rodney the yellowish fruit inside, only to find out the fruit wasn't yellow at all.

Rodney chuckled. It had taken him some time to find the right moment, but eventually he did it. It had also involved using a pair of gloves to do it, but he had managed to switch the citrus fruit in John's pocked without him knowing it. "Why are you going around with a kiwi in your pocket?"

This time Rodney had won, John had to admit it, but now it wasn't the time for games, "Rodney!"

Rodney stopped snickering, realizing how time was of the essence, "Alright, alright, but it's not that easy. The system is refusing to let the ZedPM out because it will compromise the entire power grid. Give me a minute."

Rodney worked on his Tablet, frowning on several occasions when the system would refuse to comply with his demands. In the end, he punched the console in front of him in frustration. The ZPM slowly rose, breaking the connection with the power grid, "Hah, I wasn't expecting that."

He almost started to cheer when the lights went off, leaving the team in complete darkness. Rodney pulled the ZPM out, before putting it in the specifically designed briefcase. John contacted the Daedalus, informing them the ZPM was ready to be beamed out. A few seconds passed before the briefcase disappeared in thin air.

"Okay, we're done here. Let's move out," John said to the rest of his team.

They were already moving when Rodney stopped in his track, looking at the readings the ancient device was giving him. "Hah, that's strange?"

"What is Rodney?" John asked.

"We pulled out the ZedPM and there should be no more energy readings in this section of the complex, but I'm still picking up something." Rodney explained while still looking at the device in his hand.

"That's not good. We need to shut down every source of power in the complex." John said.

"Well, it's not on the same scale as a ZPM, but it's definitely something we should check out."

"Alright, let's check it out. Where is it Rodney?"

"Two floors down and a hundred meters in that direction," Rodney said point to his left.

The four of them moved out with their weapons trained, all of their weapons having the disruptor weapon attached on them. It took them ten more minutes to reach the floor where the energy was coming from, mostly because Rodney's impeccable sense of direction forced them to double back when they went the wrong way. They approached the room where they believed the energy readings were coming from. John entered first while looking around for any threat. He found none. The rest of the team spread in the large room, Rodney checking his readings in order to pinpoint the exact location of the energy source. He found it, but he didn't know what it was.

"What is this place?" John asked looking around the room. There was some kind of alcoves on the walls of the room.

Rodney didn't answer John's question. Instead, he moved to one of the several consoles in the room and connected his tablet to see if he can find out what this place was. It didn't take him long to understand where they were.

"Oh-ho."

"What do you mean oh-ho?" John asked, gripping his weapon even tighter.

"This place is where the replicators are made, and those alcoves are currently making new ones," Rodney replied. "The complex must have an automated system that starts building new replicators when the old ones get destroyed."

"Can you shut it down?"

"No, I don't think we have enough time before they _hatch_." Rodney answered.

John on the other hand was already taking out a brick of C4 from his vest, but it was already too late. Several alcoves opened revealing their content. The replicators inside turned toward the team with a menacing look. John didn't know if replicators could get angry, but these guys really looked that way. John and the others raised their weapons and fired at the replicators who by now were already moving towards them. To their disappointment the disruptor weapon worked only on the first replicator while the others were completely unaffected by it. They tried one more time, but the result was, once again, very disappointing.

"We have to destroy this place." John yelled, but the four of them were already being forced to pull back toward the exit by the approaching replicators. With their weapons being completely useless, there wasn't enough time to place the explosives and detonate them, and of course not getting killed in the process.

The door behind them suddenly slid open revealing the four members of the Guardian First Recon Team with their weapons trained at the approaching replicators. They all fired at the same time and blue orbs hit the replicators. To the Terran team's utter astonishment, the orbs weren't made of plasma as they thought they would be. Instead, the weapon was designed to fire orbs containing liquid nitrogen that would instantly freeze everything it touches. Liam knew there was a chance the disruptor would stop working, usually at the worst possible moment. So they came up with another weapon that had the potential of stopping the replicators. From previous reports they knew the replicators stopped working in the emptiness of space because they would freeze, so they'd decided to make guns capable of instantly freezing the replicators.

One of the Guardians nodded to John with a mischievous smile on his face. John understood immediately what he was trying to tell him. He raised his P90 and fired a long burst at the frozen replicators in front of him. They exploded like being made of glass, which in turn made John smile as well. Since John didn't know if the replicators would eventually reconstruct like the Terminator did in the movie, he decided there was no time to waste. He picked up every brick of C4 he and his teammates were carrying and placed them on various locations inside the room. The guardians also picked up a few plasma grenades and tossed them inside only moments before John detonated the C4. They barely had enough time to take cover, the explosion strong enough not only to destroy the alcoves in the room, but also to bring down the walls and the ceiling of the entire room with the blue flames of the plasma grenades melting everything in their path.

Ronon was impressed by the destructive power of the little devices the Guardians used. He thought it would be a nice addition to his plasma pistol, "Look, is there a chance you have a few of those to spare?" Ronon asked one of the Guardians.

The Guardians looked at Ronon with a grin on their faces, "Alright, let's say this is a gift for our first joint mission," the Guardian said passing Ronon two grenades. "Say, where did you get your gun?"

Ronon looked at his gun, "This one? I encountered some strange people that spend most of their time traveling on their ships. I saved one of them and he gave me the gun."

"Interesting, I didn't know there were people capable of space travel except us," Aaron said, curious about the news. "I'm Aaron by the way."

"Ronon," Ronon said while shaking Aaron's hand.

John joined the two of them, "We can introduce ourselves later. I don't think this room is the only one that replicates… replicators."

"You're right. We have some cleaning up to do. I think it would be best if we mix up our teams before proceeding. Two freeze-guns and two P90's will do great against the replicators. Nice guns by the way"

"Nice guns? How do you know?" John said not knowing how Aaron knew about their guns.

Aaron smiled, "Let's just say I had the pleasure of using them before."

John raised his eyebrow thinking for a moment, "Atlantis… the Genii incursion. You were there?"

Aaron grinned without saying anything.

"Well, I think I'll have to buy you a drink later for helping us there… and here. "

"And we will gladly accept your offer, but for now let's finish up here first."

They all nodded, splitting their team in half and continuing the search for any more replicators or alcoves they could destroy. They notified the other teams of the threat they'd discovered and informed them to employ the same tactic in dealing with them.

The _cleaning _lasted longer than they thought it would, on several occasions finding new built replicators roaming the complex and another five rooms identical to the one they'd already blown up. On one occasion there was so many replicators that they didn't have any other choice except to beam out and to blow up that section from orbit. It was a waste bombarding the complex, but it was better than facing a large group of very pissed replicators head-on.

The day came to an end, everybody confident enough they had mopped up every last replicator in the entire complex and destroyed every replication facility there was. Now it was time for the scientists and technicians to inspect the rest of the complex and to find out how everything worked. It will take months, even with the joined effort from all three members of the alliance working constantly, but the reword of what they did here could change the future in a considerable way and they knew it.

As they'd already discussed, the Asgard were mostly interested in the Neutronium the planet had in abundance and the Terrans promised to Thor they can come here and take as much as they needed. The Asgard had already started the process of beaming all the nanite dust that remained after the disruptor weapon destroyed the replicators on the planet. There was a lot of Neutronium to last them for several months. Liam was adamant he only wanted the flying city and three of the thirteen warships. It will take several more weeks or even a month to finish the city before it could fly away. The replicator had almost finished the city, but without them it will take a lot longer to finish it. The rest was for the Terrans, which was a lot. Twelve fully charged ZPMs, the entire planet's complex with three shipyards capable of building massive ships, the drone factory and the ZPM facility, although the last one wouldn't give them much in terms of fresh ZPMs. The replicators had a very large fusion reactor on the planet they used to charge the ZPMs. It took the reactors almost fifty years to fully charge a ZPM, so the Terrans knew they wouldn't be able to build new ZPMs any time soon, but it was good to know they had the technology to do it no matter how long it would take. Plans were already put in place. The three shipyards would be used to build the new BB-305 once the designs were finished. The aurora class ship was just too big and without the replicator's construction ability, it would take too much time to build them. The BB-305 was much smaller than the Aurora class was, making it much easier to build. Besides, they shared the same attitude as Liam on how to build warships. The drones were fine, but making warships without energy weapons was a waste of a warship in their opinion and it showed in the battle they just had. Once they were able to modify their shields the drones were useless and the warships didn't have any other way to attack except maybe ramming their ships. To add to that fact, the warships were incredibly slow compared to the Daedalus, both sublight and FTL.

They still had to solve the problem of how to transfer some of the large warships to the Milky Way galaxy since the ships didn't have an intergalactic hyperdrive. Help came from Thor, promising three O'Neill battlecruisers would tow three Auroras across the galactic void. Even for the O'Neill it was a strain to tow such a massive ship. It will take them a week to make the trip, something usually the Asgard flagship could do in mere hours.

Most of the facilities on the planet would remain powered down for the foreseeable future. The main problem was not having enough people to go around. Even manning all the auroras was going to be a strain to the still limited resources the Terrans had at the moment.

All considered, everybody who participated in the joint mission was content how it turned out, now fully capable of taking the fight back to the wraith. The only thing that remained to do was to transfer Atlantis here. Once Liam's people would finish building the city ship and take it away, Atlantis would leave Lantea and land here where the current flying city was. There's no reason to have assets spread on two planets. They were already undermanned as it was.

Jack waited on Atlantis, maybe Liam and Thor would want to discuss the Ori problem they apparently would have to face in the near future, but Liam and Thor decided they had too much things to do and for now there wasn't much they could do except wait and see what the Ori first move would be. Liam also thought he would probably receive a visit from Aenea, his ascended brothers and sisters certainly already knowing more than he did. In light of this, Jack decided it was time to go back and that they would discuss the matter on a later time when Liam had more information.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

Jack gated back to the Terran HQ while Daniel and Sam waited impatiently his return and the news he would bring.

The two of them walked toward Jack with expecting eyes, Daniel being the faster one to ask the question they were both wanting to know the answer to, "So, how it went?"

Jack looked at Daniel judgingly which made Daniel flinch, not understanding the reason for such a look, "It went well, for the most part. The planet is ours and as far as we know, there are no more replicators in the Pegasus galaxy, but Liam is pretty angry, mostly at you I might add, which made the celebration a little bitter. There wasn't even a cake afterword, which… I was expecting," Jack said while placing his hands above his stomach in clear disappointment.

Daniel looked at Jack in a '_what the hell_' kind of way not understanding why Liam, who he had never even met, was pissed at him, "Angry? Why, what did I do, or when did I did it for that matter."

"Well, the little stunt you and that chick Vala pulled apparently is a VERY bad thing for all of us. The apocalyptic kind of bad I might add."

"What…Why…What did Liam say?" Daniel babbled not liking the situation.

"Oh something in the line of Alterran archenemies who are ascended beings of unimaginable powers who enslave their people through their religion Origin, with an entire galaxy full of fanatic followers ready to die for them. Did I mention how they kill you if you don't join their religion?" Jack spat back the answer.

"Oh, he said that. Not good then," Daniel said not liking what he just heard.

"Yeah, my thought exactly."

"But why is he pissed at me? I didn't do anything?" Daniel asked still not knowing what he did wrong.

"Ah well, that's where you're wrong. You see, by talking to them, you actually confirmed there are humans in this galaxy, something the ascended bunch here was trying to hide from the Ori for the… uh… I don't know, last countless years and now that they do know we're here they will be coming. How, I don't know, but Liam is sure they will."

Sam looked at Daniel's pale face, knowing that he would blame himself for a long time for this if it turned out in an all-out war. Off course there was a chance Daniel wouldn't be able to blame himself for long, since there's a good change they were all going to die very soon if what Jack told them was any indication. "Wait, how are they going to even reach us? I mean, it's not that easy to cross half the universe with enough ships and soldiers to conquer a galaxy?"

Jack shrugged, "I really don't know, but Liam is certain they will find a way. Besides, if there is someone or something that could do it, it's ascended beings with godlike powers and knowledge to build whatever they want."

Daniel looked still pale and closed up in his thoughts, "I screwed up big this time, didn't I."

"Yeah, you did, but don't worry too much. It happens to the best of us and according to Murphy, it is only a matter of when and not if." Jack said, trying to cheer up his friend. "Besides, now we have an entire planet with awesome stuff on it that can help a lot. We have ten brand new warships at our disposal, shipyards capable of building ships pretty fast, and a ton of facilities that can produce a lot of other stuff that will help us in the war against the Wraith and the Ori, if and when they come here. And most importantly, we are not alone in this. Maybe it is not like it was with the four races millions of years ago, but between the Guardians, the Asgard, and us we have the might of the three most powerful races in this part of the universe."

"You think the Asgard will get involved in the fight?" Sam asked. After all the Ori and the Wraith were not their problems.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they'd rather have _us_ as neighbors than the Wraith and especially not the Ori. As far as Liam knows there're no other races in the Ori galaxy. They must have killed them all a long time ago."

Hearing the last part of Jack's speech Daniel shrugged even more. He only knew a fraction of what the Ori were capable of. The image of Vala burning in flames and the Prior giving her _her_ life back as if it was nothing, were still vivid in his mind and it was enough to make him feel sick in his stomach. Who knows the full extent of the evil he and Vala have unleashed upon this galaxy and all his inhabitants? It wasn't his life the only one at stake or Earth's for that matter. It was the life of an entire galaxy full of people. Tens of billions of humans and countless races, most of them they didn't even met yet.

"What can we do?" Sam asked Jack, in the process also snapping Daniel from his dark thoughts.

Jack sighed, "Prepare, which will be mostly your job. We'll have to push the R&D department and his people at their limits. We also need to speed up the whole integration process of new people in our organization. The capture of the replicator's planet and the warships is already going to strain our manpower to levels we didn't even think we would need five years from now."

Sam nodded, "Leave the R&D to me. I'll push them to deliver what we need ahead of schedule."

Jack smiled, seeing the determination in her eyes. He knew she would push the R&D guys so hard they would need amphetamines to keep up with the workload, "Good, because I think we'll be facing many changes in the near future with Liam being the mastermind behind them."

"Why do you say that?" Sam said, not understanding what Liam had to do with anything.

"Because I know that guy thinks at least ten steps ahead. He actually said the Ori screwed up a lot of his plans and if you think about the joint mission we just had with him and the Asgard, you'll come to realize that he didn't really need us for beating the replicators. I mean, we only had four ships at our disposal and he certainly wasn't obligated to leave us an entire planet and everything on it as compensation. So why did he?" Jack said with a mischievous smile.

Sam blinked, "I don't know, but I have the clear feeling you're going to tell me."

"Because he wants more. This joint operation was only the first step in the formation of a new great alliance between our three races, or four if you count the Nox. Even the idea we got from him to form the Terran Alliance was something _he_ needed if he wants to create this new alliance. As long as Earth was divided, he couldn't make any formal alliance with us. Now that we represent Earth, he can make a formal request directly to us because we represent the planet, and I bet it want be long before he makes his next move toward that goal." Jack explained in a rather lengthy fashion. At least for him it was lengthy and he had to catch his breath twice before finishing.

Daniel listened to Jack's speech. There was something different in Jack, but he didn't know what it was. He only knew this wasn't the old Jack. "You must have thought about this a lot."

"Hey, I'm the chairman of the council now, I have to. I don't like it, but…"

"That's true. So, you think Liam wants to reform the Great Alliance. That doesn't sound that bad?" Daniel said.

"I didn't think it is. I actually think this is something we should strive to achieve. I'm only concerned how the rest of Earth will react to that." Jack said already thinking what all the governments would think, or do for that matter.

"Why would they be against it, I mean it's in Earth's best interest we form this alliance?"

"Daniel, don't be naïve. Since when politicians think or do what's best for the planet or their people. It's all about power. It's always been like that and it's always going to be, at least for those guys. What, you think they allowed the formation of this organization because they knew it was best for Earth? Of course not, they did it because they didn't want _one _country to have it all and they didn't have any other solution to that problem. They had to compromise, but thinking they're liking how things are now it's naïve at best, and when we join the other three great races, we'll gain even more power. And more power we gain, less power they have. Not to mention what we gained in the Pegasus galaxy today."

Daniel sighed, "Yeah, I know. I just don't like that, with all the problems we have, we'll have to fight our own people on this."

"And because we _will_ have to fight them after they find out how powerful we're becoming, I propose we keep everything that has happened recently to ourselves, as well as everything that is going to happen next. Only the council should know about recent events." Jack said to the two people in front of him.

"What, you want to keep it a secret… everything? Wouldn't that put us in an even worse position if they find out? And as you said, it's not really a matter of if they find out it's more a matter of when." Daniel asked, remembering Jack's little speech about Murphy.

"Yeah, probably, but I'm more inclined in pissing them off than giving them time to act against us. And they will, the moment they find out. Besides, everything that happened here is an internal matter and we're not obligated to divulge such information." Jack said, knowing full well it wouldn't matter what they were and weren't _legally _obligated to reveal to them. When they'll find out they've kept things like this from them, it will be hell to pay, with Jack in the front row waiting to take the brunt of their anger.

"I'm in, but I don't know if the others in the council are going to be." Daniel said.

"Well Daniel, that's your job, to make sure they are. I don't think we will have any problems with Klaus, or Dmitri for that matter, but the others, I don't know them that well to make an assessment."

"Alright, leave the convincing part to me. We have a meeting scheduled for later today." Daniel explained.

"Good. Now, if that's all, I need to go to the mess hall and get me some cake. My stomach expected it earlier so…" Jack said, already walking away from Sam and Daniel.

Sam and Daniel looked at each other for a moment before replying in unison, "Hey, wait for us."

There was no reason why they shouldn't get some cake too.

* * *

**The Intergalactic Void – Aboard Liam's ship**

Liam was standing in the middle of the bridge, facing the frontal display showing the blue dimension known as hyperspace swirling around his ship. He wasn't actually looking at it. He was completely immersed in his thoughts, so much that even if there was a party going on on the bridge he wouldn't have noticed it. A lot had happened these last few days, mostly good things like the events that transpired in the Pegasus galaxy, or the various reports he had received from his people informing him everything was going smoothly in all three galaxies. All this didn't matter to him at the moment. The only thing he had on his mind was the bad news he had received from Jack. The Ori, a race he forgot it even existed. The only thing he knew about them was what he had learned when he was ascended, and what he knew could came down to one simple sentence. They are evil, stay out of their way. So, now that he knew he couldn't stay out of their way even if he wanted to, he had to come up with a way to fight them. His thoughts were racing at thousand miles per hour, first trying to find all the different ways the Ori could come here and secondly, how to stop them from doing so. So far he came up empty. He knew he could muster a fleet strong enough to keep them at bay. Between him, the Asgard and Earth they could have a decent force that could probably stop any invasion, but he knew that in the end it would accomplish nothing. No matter how much followers he kills, more would come, in the process making this probably the bloodiest war ever with no end in sight. The problem weren't the followers, but the Ori and he didn't know how to fight them, or if it was even possible. Aenea hinted there was a way to kill ascended beings the time she came and accused him of trying to do the same to Anubis, but he still didn't know how and he was sure she wouldn't tell him. There was also the chance she also didn't know the exact method for killing an ascended being.

Liam sighed in exasperation. He was not getting anywhere closer in finding a solution.

"You don't look to well," Aenea spoke from behind Liam.

The thing that startled Liam wasn't her sudden appearance, but the fact that he was traveling through hyperspace right now. "How can you be here?"

"You're smart, you'll figure it out, " Aenea replied with a smile on her face.

Liam understood," You were here the whole time, even before the ship has entered hyperspace."

"You see, it wasn't so hard."

"So, I guess you heard the delightful news."

"We knew it the moment Daniel made contact with them," Aenea answered, shrugging a little.

"Of course you did. I gather there won't be any celebrations upstairs any time soon because of it."

"Of that you can be certain. We thought we would have a lot more time before they'd find out about the humans here."

"Are you going to do something to help?" Liam asked, but watching Aenea he found the answer even before she could say anything. "Yeah, I thought you wouldn't."

"Nothing has changed. The majority still believes in our laws. We will act only if the Ori enter this region of space in person." Aenea explained.

"Wait, you said majority. Does that mean not all of you think you shouldn't interfere?"

Aenea paused for a moment, thinking if she should answer his question. "There are a few that believe we should act even if their followers come here."

"And what do you believe?" Liam asked, wanting to know where his wife was standing.

"I'm inclined to follow those few, but nor I, nor they will do anything if the others forbids it."

"Yeah, I thought that much."

Aenea was looking at Liam with concern in her eyes, "Liam, this shouldn't stray you from your path."

"What?" Liam asked really not understanding where she was going with this. "What path?"

Aenea sighed, "You're doing a lot of things that many of us… admire, and I wouldn't want you to get sidetracked by this new menace. There are other things you should be paying attention to."

"Like what? Wait… admire?" Liam asked really not understanding anything of what she was telling him.

"I can't say anything more. I really don't want to get punished for this."

"Really… admire?" Liam repeated much like a broken record would.

"What, you think there's no one on the higher plane that thinks what you're doing is a good thing?"

"Yeah, I suppose, but you said _admire_, that's a little more than that." Liam grinned before continuing, "Are you building a fun club for me upstairs?"

Aenea turned red while also narrowing her eyes in a clearly threatening manner, "You really don't know how to receive a compliment without turning it into a mockery, do you."

"Sorry, sorry, my bad. I was just trying to lighten up the mood a little, that's all," Liam replied, also bringing his hands forward in a purely defensive stance.

"Liam, this is not the time for jokes. This is a very important matter you know." Aenea retorted, trying to sound angry, but it was difficult to keep from smiling. '_A fun club. What was he thinking?'_

"Yeah, you're right… as always." Liam said apologetically, but he already knew she wasn't really mad at him.

They continued discussing the Ori, Aenea giving him as much information about them as possible, but even she didn't know a lot or at least she wouldn't tell which made the end result being one and the same. Liam on the other hand tried to get more intel on the _other _things she said he should be paying more attention, but Aenea deflected the questions by quickly changing the topic. Once they'd reached the Andromeda galaxy they said their farewells, Aenea leaving for who knows where and Liam entering orbit around Eden Prime. Of one thing he was certain. Aenea made him realize he had other things to do rather than spending all of his time thinking about the Ori. Maybe it was exactly what she wanted him to do, maybe there wasn't any other threat he should pay attention to. Maybe it was only a way to tell him to get on with his work and stop worrying too much.

Maybe.


	5. Chapter 5: Anomaly

**Authors notes: **

First of all, thanks to those who have taken the time to review the story. It makes writing so much easier knowing that someone appreciates it.

Another chapter of the first book in this trilogy is finally ready. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as much as the other ones and don't forget to write a review.

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Unknown Location**

For the past three weeks the Guardian cruiser Muriel had been shadowing a Senari warship in a desperate attempt to find their homeworld. They had been lucky to stumble upon the ship while it was landed on a planet's surface. The planet in question was one of the latest victims in the relentless Senari quest to annihilate every sentient being in the galaxy. The ship had been powered down, thus making it the perfect candidate for planting a tracking device on it without the Senari knowing. After leaving the planet, the ship had continued on his quest for the next three weeks and in that time the captain of the Muriel had to witness countless atrocities while unable to do anything if he didn't want to lose his only chance of finding from where the ship was coming from. It hadn't been easy. On many occasions the captain had wanted nothing more than to order the san-of-a-bitches destroyed, but the destruction of one ship would accomplish nothing and the captain knew it. What he'd feared the most was that the ship hadn't shown any intention of turning back, making him question if this mission would ever end. But he had his orders and they were very precise. Follow the ship to hell if necessary and for as long as it takes.

It appeared their luck had finally changed a week ago when the ship had ended his latest bombardment of yet another planet where the alien race on the surface was so young they were practically still in the Stone Age. The ship had finally turned on an opposite course of the one it had followed for the past three weeks and, without stopping, it had traveled back toward what the captain believed it must be their planet of origin or at least some outpost where they could find some more clues.

"Captain, the Senari ship has dropped out of hyperspace two light-years ahead of us," one of the officers notified the Captain.

"Finally, let's hope it's what we're looking for. Drop us at least five light minutes prior to their coordinates and engage the cloak," the Captain ordered. He didn't want the Senari to know how they weren't alone.

The Muriel exited hyperspace, immediately engaging his cloak. It engaged his sublight engines and slowly pushed toward the coordinates the tracking beacon was giving them. The ship had activated only its passive sensors since they didn't want to warn the Senari of their presence, but still wanting to be able to take some readings. It took them another half an hour to get close enough to see what was there and what they saw wasn't what they were expecting to find.

"What is that?" the Captain asked his subordinates not understanding what the main screen was showing him. On the display, there was the ship they were following and... a hole in space, the latter being the center of the Captain's frustration.

"I'm not certain Captain. Without the active sensors the only thing I know is that it's some kind of disturbance in space," the officer replied, trying to understand the readings his console was giving him.

The Captain was about to ask what kind of disturbance it was, but when the ship they were chasing went through it and disappeared from sensors, he had a good idea what it was. "It's some kind of wormhole, but how is that possible? There is no visible device there that could create something like this."

"I don't know sir. It looks like it is a natural phenomenon of some kind."

"Do we have anything similar on record in our database?"

Another officer worked franticly on his console for the next few minutes. "No sir, we have nothing that could fall into that category."

"Are our sensors picking up any other ship in the vicinity?"

"No sir, we're alone in here."

"Switch to active sensors and give me everything you can find on that thing."

The officer responsible for manning the sensors complied with the Captain's request and moments later he was ready to answer, "The anomaly is absorbing the EM waves from our active sensors, and there is no emission emanating from it. It's almost like we are standing in front of a black hole, just without the gravitational and temporal distortions a black hole usually creates."

"Alright, I think the only thing we can do is to send a probe through and see what's on the other side. Configure the probe to constantly send its telemetry and then launch it."

The probe sped through space on a direct course for the anomaly and after thirty seconds, it disappeared. Thankfully, the probe was able to send back telemetry even from beyond the event horizon of the anomaly. At least this was the case for the next thirty seconds.

"The probe has stopped sending any data Captain," the sensors officer informed the Captain.

"Do we know why?"

"Yes sir, the probe has been destroyed by some kind of energy weapon, but I think we have a clear picture of what's on the other side," the officer said with clear concern in his voice, immediately putting the image on the main screen.

The Captain watched intently at what the probe had sent back. It wasn't good, of that he was certain. The image showed a massive structure on the other side of the wormhole, easily dwarfing any construct the Captain had ever seen in his entire life. The ten miles wide space station looked menacing enough by itself, but the data was showing more. There were hundreds of Senari ships there and worse, there were at least six more wormholes the probe had detected in the vicinity and every one of them had a space station in front of it. As if it wasn't enough, the Captain understood one other thing that made him feel chills go down his spine. The stations were completely different in configuration, material composition, or shields emissions than the Senari warships. It was immediately apparent those behemoths had been built by somebody else. The Captain ordered one of his officers to run an analysis of the stars, wanting to know where the anomaly was leading to. The stars were dim and unknown to the Captain's eyes and even before the officer replied, he knew _that_ place was somewhere far away from here. A minute later the officer confirmed his suspicion. The constellations didn't match with anything they had on record. Maybe once they bring the data they had collected back home, a more detailed and lengthy analysis could reveal something more. The process of comparing star constellations was not the easiest task and it was something the people at home were better equipped to do.

As to show them it was time to leave, five Senari warships exited the wormhole. The probe must have raised a few red flags on the other side. The captain didn't think twice before he ordered to leave. He knew they were cloaked, but he didn't want to tempt faith since his job was done and there was no reason to stay any longer. The Muriel sped away from the anomaly and the five approaching ships at full speed and when the captain was sure they put enough distance between them and the pursuers, they opened a hyperspace window and left the scene. They would travel at maximum speed toward home, the information they'd retrieved too important to waste any time.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

Jack was leaning on the balcony of his office in one of the central buildings on the island. The building wasn't near as tall as the skyscraper on Atlantis, but his office was on the topmost floor so he still had a pretty good view of the entire island. Terrania, it took them months to decide on the name for the artificial island they'd built here in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It was beautiful, similar to Atlantis in design, but with a very important distinction. When they made the plans for the island, one of the first things they'd all agreed was, the island needs to have trees. Atlantis was fine, being probably the most amazing city and also a technological marvel they still couldn't replicate, but there was too much metal all around it for anyone to really like it, much less to call it home. Instead, they'd decided Terrania should have green pastures, forests and lakes, and there should also be real animals on the island. It made building the damn thing that more difficult, but Jack thought it was worth every penny of it.

The reason why Jack was on the balcony was because he had a lot on his mind lately. With all that had happened in the Pegasus galaxy, the sudden revelation there were ascended beings bent on domination, and the usual everyday paperwork insisting on growing relentlessly no matter how much he tried to fight it, his thoughts would often turn to the same question he'd been asking himself for the past year and a half. What did possess him to accept this job? He didn't have an answer to that, and he feared he would never have one.

His comm. device beeped. Somebody needed his attention. He answered and listened to Walter explain how Klaus was urgently asking him to come and see him. It was always urgent, even when it wasn't. Klaus' office was only three doors to the left of his own so he was there in less than a minute. He entered, the secretary immediately telling him Klaus was already waiting for him inside and that he could go in right away. Inside, Klaus was looking at a large display showing what Jack believed to be a large region of the Milky Way galaxy.

"Klaus," Jack said, informing him he was here.

Klaus turned toward Jack, "Oh Jack, you're here. Good. I need to show you something."

Jack walked toward Klaus and stopped right beside him, "What is it?"

"This is a map of a portion of our galaxy. Almost seventy thousand light years in diameter."

"I can see that."

"As you can see on the map, I colored the former Goa'uld territories in yellow," Klaus said pointing at the large portion of the map that had a slight yellow coloration. "And this here in red is the current location of the System Lords, at least what our intel is telling us," he continued pointing at another region of the map, very distant from the former Goa'uld territories.

Jack looked at the map and saw that the two territories were at least thirty thousand light years apart, "Yeah I can see that. From this it looks like the System Lords are running like hell away from us and the FJN."

"Exactly, and when you say running as hell you must take into account they don't have an intergalactic hyperdrive at their disposal. It must have taken them months to go that far," Klaus explained.

"Alright, but I still don't see where you're going with this."

"Please, bear with me for a moment. I think you will soon understand my _little_ problem here," Klaus said emphasizing the little part, which made Jack think it was probably the opposite.

"Alright, please continue."

"Now, look what happens when I push this button," Klaus said while pushing a button on his console. On the map, a lot of icons, depicting various ships, appeared. "The FJN has spent the past year chasing the Goa'uld, and this is what we believe is the current location of their ships."

Jack looked at the map for a long time, trying to count all the FJN ships on it and their current locations. Suddenly his expression turned into one of utter shock, "What! Are they nuts?"

"Now you see why I called you here."

"Of course I see it; even a blind man can see it. The question is, how the hell _they_ didn't see it?"

"My point exactly. If this is the real situation we might have a serious problem on our hands. They sent almost seventy percent of their ships to chase the Goa'uld with no chance of a quick return home. It will take weeks for those ships to return, even if they push their engines to their limits," Klaus pointed out.

"How could they be so stupid?" Jack asked, but he knew the answer even before finishing the sentence. "Gerak, this is his doing. I can feel it!"

"It definitely follows his profile." Klaus replied. "There's also something else. The ships that they didn't send are of the older type, those that haven't been upgraded by Anubis or Baal."

"Which means the ships they have back home are also the weakest ships they have. Oh, that's just great!"

"And don't forget the slowest. It would take them a lot more time to move them around even if they knew where and when the Goa'uld are planning to attack. Those ships are at least five times slower than the upgraded models."

"Let's hope the Goa'uld won't attack at all, but at the same time let's plan as they will. What do you think will be their target?"

"It depends what they want to achieve. If their goal is to destroy the Jaffa's moral, their choice will be Dakara, but if they want to gain a strategic advantage, they are probably planning on taking Tartarus or another of the more industrialized planets. They could also decide to attack planet after planet, leaving only waste in their path, who knows."

"That's true, we don't know, but let's assume that if they want to attack every planet they will do it systematically, probably starting with the ones closest to them and on the FJN border, and then by proceeding further into their territory. If that's the case we need to watch those two systems first," Jack explained pointing at the two dots representing the two FJN's systems closest to the border. "And if they don't plan to attack every planet, then they are most certainly going for Tartarus or Dakara."

"Sounds right to me. What ships do we have at our disposal?"

"Well, we have the Odyssey, the Apollo and the Prometheus ready to go. Atlas is on a mission of exploration and I don't know if I can recall it in time. The three Aurora class warships are here, but the crews are new and two of them are not even completely manned, but let's say we could use them as well."

"So, six ships in total, or maybe seven if we're lucky. We could send the Odyssey and Apollo to watch the two star systems on the FJN border, since they are faster ships and all. The remaining three Auroras and Prometheus should go to Tartarus and Dakara."

"Alright, it sounds good enough. I'm going to inform our ships to start moving and then I'm heading for Dakara. I need to talk to Teal'c and Bra'tac about this as soon as possible."

Klaus was about to nod, but then he suddenly stopped, "Are you sure you want to go there? You could end up on a planet that's about to be besieged."

"Yeah, I know, but I can't leave them hanging like that. They are my friends and we helped each other on too many occasions to turn my back on them."

"I wasn't suggesting that. I was merely pointing out that you don't have to do it in person."

"I think I do. If I send somebody else, they could make him wait, maybe even for hours before admitting him. On the other hand if I go, I know Teal'c and Bra'tac will listen to me right away."

"Alright, it's your call. I just don't like the idea of having our Chairman trapped in a hostile situation."

"I appreciate you concern, but I think we still have enough time before the snakeheads show up, _if _they show up at all. And once the two Auroras are above Dakara, the Goa'uld can kiss my ass how much I care what they intended to do."

The conversation ended shortly after and Jack left for his office to contact the various captains of the six ships available. It took less than fifteen minutes to call them all, change into something more suitable for off-world travel, and he was ready and at the gate only five minutes later. What confused Jack was SG-1 and SG-13 being there and waiting.

"Mitchell, what are you doing here?" Jack asked, seeing the teams waiting there.

"We were waiting for you sir," Mitchell answered flatly.

"Why?" Jack asked again.

"Council member Gahlen asked us to accompany you on Dakara as your escort sir," Mitchell explained.

"Oh, he did, did he?" Jack grunted not liking the babysitting situation he found himself in, but he didn't have time to discuss it with Mitchell, "Okay, let's go than. Nice team by the way."

Mitchell shrugged. He knew full well Jack was being sarcastic. It was mostly because of Vala being one of his team members and he knew Jack really didn't like her, especially after the whole Ori thingy. There was also Ford who, as far as Mitchell was concerned, was a very good soldier, but all the troubles he had caused with his addiction on the Wraith's enzyme made him an odd choice. That was also the main reason why Ford was here and not in the Pegasus galaxy. They didn't trust him to be around Wraiths. Peters was the last of the four, an unknown quantity to both Mitchell and Jack who knew almost nothing about the guy, but at least on paper it looked as he was a very good soldier. Mitchell thought only time would tell.

"Thank you sir," Mitchell answered to Jack's sarcastic remark.

"Don't mention it."

The gate turned for the seventh and last time, locking the last chevron in place and opening the wormhole that would lead them to Dakara. Jack had to go through the gate in the middle of the two teams, more like if they were personal bodyguards than anything else. Jack didn't like it one bit, but complaining wouldn't do him any good. Actually there was a section among all the regulations they had that explicitly said all council members on off-world missions must have an escort of at least two teams with them at all times. Most of the time Jack would manage to depart through the gate before anyone could react, but now that the two teams were already waiting, he didn't have the usual opportunity to sneak through.

* * *

**Dakara**

Jack didn't understand why the Jaffa would want to live on a planet like this one. He knew Dakara was their holy place and all that crap, but to live here was close to condemning yourself to a life of hell. The planet was a desert, with temperatures above anything Jack could call livable and everywhere you looked there was nothing but sand and rocks. You could walk for miles and, of course if you miraculously didn't drop dead from dehydration, you would still see only more sand and more rocks. They actually had to bring water from another planet because it was easier to get it that way than finding it on the planet. Well, it didn't matter. He wasn't planning on staying for too long anyway, and if the Jaffa liked it here and wanted to live on such a planet, that was their choice to make. Several guards stopped them on their way to the council's chamber, making him lose precious time, them explaining the council was in session and no one was allowed inside, and him explaining he was on an urgent matter that the council would surely be interested in hearing. After almost half an hour of convincing, he somehow managed to send word to Teal'c who ordered the guards to let him through. If he had sent somebody else as Klaus had suggested it would have taken him all day to reach the council, Jack was sure of it.

Jack entered the council chamber, walking straight toward Teal'c and Bra'tac, "Teal'c, Bra'tac."

"O'Neill," Teal'c replied first, followed by Bra'tac nodding immediately after.

Jack decided to go straight to the matter, "Teal'c, do you know that most of your fleet is half across the galaxy instead of being here?"

"I am aware," Teal'c replied simply, but his voice clearly showed he didn't like that fact.

It was enough for Jack to understand that Teal'c had opposed such decision. Jack turned to face Gerak who was standing on the opposite side of the table for a brief moment, letting Teal'c know that he knew who ordered such reckless mission. He turned back toward Teal'c, clearly ignoring the stare he was receiving from Gerak, "I'm here to warn you, our intel suggests you could be in serious trouble."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, "Explain."

"Well, we think the whole Goa'uld running far away is actually a ruse to lure your ships away from your planets."

"That's impossible!" Gerak yelled angrily from across the table. "We have pushed the Goa'uld out of this region of the galaxy and that is the only reason why they have gone so far away."

Jack turned to face Gerak, "Let me ask you a question. When was the last time you actually faced the Goa'uld in battle?"

"Six months ago. Since than those cowards have always run away rather than face us in battle," Gerak said proudly.

"And how many ships did they have when you caught up with them?" Jack continued his questioning.

Gerak was getting irritated by this questions, mostly because he didn't know where Jack was headed, "One, sometimes two ships."

Jack looked at Gerak and saw in his eye he really didn't understand what was going on. He turned toward Teal'c. "He still doesn't get it does he?"

"No he does not," Teal'c replied stoically as always.

"Are you going to explain to him or should I? I think you should do it."

"Explain what?" Gerak asked not understanding what the two of them were talking about.

Teal'c decided he should explain, "While I was on Earth, I have spent a lot of time studding the different tactics the Tau'ri used throughout their history. In one of them the Tau'ri would lure their enemy with baits. The goal was to overextend the enemy forces, so that they could sneak behind enemy lines and attack their encampments without having to fight the brunt of their forces."

Jack looked at Gerak who still didn't understand what they were saying to him, "The Goa'uld are trying to do the same thing to you. While almost seventy percent of your ships is weeks from here, they could sneak back here and attack you with the brunt of their forces."

"Only a coward would use such tactics," Gerak replied as this explains everything.

"Your point being?" Jack asked.

"Gerak believes the Goa'uld would never use such tactics." Teal'c interjected.

Jack was startled. He looked at Gerak waiting for him to deny it, but he waited in vain. Gerak firmly believed the Goa'uld would fight honorably and by honorably meaning they would only enter into a straight fight. That shocked Jack even though he knew what kind of man Gerak was. Jack turned to face Teal'c again, "Is he for real?"

"It appears so."

"Gerak, you _must _understand that the Goa'uld are parasites that will do whatever is in their power to win, no matter if it looks despicable or cowardly. They don't care how they win, just that they do."

Gerak was on the fence. What Jack was telling him was probably the truth, but his ego was and it will always be his biggest enemy, telling him he should not listen to some simple human. Who was he to speak to him as if he was a child? Gerak witnessed countless battles in his long life, and he wasn't about to let a simple human tell him what to do. "This doesn't matter. We still have more than enough ships to fight the Goa'uld, _if_ they even come, and I don't believe they will."

"Look Gerak, I only want to help here. I've already ordered our ships to come here to lay a hand if they show up. I'm only asking you to do the same and recall your ships back," Jack pleaded, thinking it would be a better tactic than trying to reason with him.

"You will do no such thing. We do not need your ships. If the Goa'uld come here, _we_ will deal with them."

Jack wanted to shout back at the moron, but Teal'c was fast enough to understand what was coming. He placed one hand on Jack's shoulder, making him realize it wasn't the right move, "O'Neill, you should go outside and wait there. _We _will discuss this matter further among us."

Jack understood. His presence could only worsen the situation, and if Teal'c and Bra'tac couldn't convince the council, nobody could. He nodded politely to all present and walked outside the room. Now the only thing he could do was to wait.

* * *

**Milky Way galaxy – Goa'uld Ha'tak ship**

Baal was standing on the bridge of a Ha'tak, thinking about the last year and a half and all the things that had happened during that time. It hadn't been a good year, of that he was more than certain. The Goa'uld position on the galactic scene was on an all-time low. Even when the Asgard were at the peak of their strength things hadn't been as bad as they were now. Earth was a pain in the ass, and the Jaffa were on a warpath, trying to make them pay dearly for all the years of oppression. But all that was nothing compared to the real reason that made him feel so miserable. The main reason for Baal's misery was the _thing_ standing in front of him, ranting about all the ways he will torture him for all eternity if he failed again. He wasn't even listening to his threats anymore. They had become an everyday thing just like first morning coffee.

So Anubis continued with his threats while Baal pretended to listen. He would torture him to death only to revive him before beginning the whole process again and again. He would make him do the most humiliating things he could think of, things that even a loyal slave would decline, rather deciding to die than doing them. Standing there in silence made Baal realize this was his last chance if he wanted to have any resemblance of a normal life. The plan was good, he had spent a lot of time thinking on how to make it happened, but that didn't mean it would succeed. Too many times he thought he had the upper hand, only to end up disappointed and beaten by his enemies, with SG-1 being the prime candidate to come to mind. How did they always find a way to survive his master plans was beyond his understanding. It didn't matter. This plan was going to work, he was sure of it. Even Anubis was surprised by its ingenuity. Though, that didn't give Baal any reassurance. Anubis's approval would mean nothing and he would most certainly not forgive him in the event he failed.

There was another thing that bothered Baal and that was not if the plan failed, but what if the plan succeeded. Maybe Anubis wouldn't kill him, but the plan would kill everybody else in the entire galaxy. He didn't know how he felt about that. In his life, he did some despicable things, but nothing compared to what he was about to do. There was also the fact that if he succeeded in his evil plan, Anubis wouldn't need him anymore. All that made Baal think he should find a way out of this incredibly screwed up situation he found himself in. The question was how. If he crossed Anubis on this, the bastard would make all the aforementioned threats become a reality. He had to find a way to make this plan fail and at the same time escape somewhere far away from Anubis' grasp. The problem was the remaining Jaffa were loyal to Anubis and not him, and they would kill him on the first sign of deception.

It didn't matter anymore. They had already reached their destination and there was no turning back.

* * *

**Dakara's Orbit **

The fifteen Ha'taks exited hyperspace close to the planet Dakara. In orbit above the planet, seven Ha'taks were guarding the planet. Baal hoped it would have been more ships guarding the most precious planet the Jaffa had, which would at least make their task a little more difficult, but that apparently wasn't the case. Fifteen upgraded Ha'taks against seven old models was going to end up in a one sided slaughter.

Reluctantly, Baal gave the order, "_**Destroy them!**_"

The worst part of the government the FJN had employed was that since Gerak had most of the ships, he also had the power to dictate how the FJN forces would be used. Of course he would give the best opportunities to be on the front line to his own ships, making precious experience as they made battle. They had the best equipment and the best crews at their disposal, but most importantly they were far away from home.

The seven Ha'taks in orbit, on the other hand, were undermanned, under-skilled and completely unprepared for what was to come next. The ships barely had enough time to power their shields, let alone man all the stations or find where the gliders pilots were at the moment. They were probably sitting somewhere on the surface of the planet for that matter.

The defending force had tried to react when they saw the fifteen Ha'taks exiting hyperspace, making evasive maneuvers while also trying to fire back at the intruders, but it was a completely uncoordinated effort. Ships would fire at the closest enemy ship instead of trying to bring more than one ship's weapons to fire at the same target. It was the only way they could even hope to breach the better shielding of the enemy ships. It was all for nothing. With more than two-to-one firepower, the enemy ships destroyed ship after ship, leaving only burning wreckage floating lifelessly in space. The enemy ships took position above the Capital city.

The siege of Dakara had just begun.

* * *

**Dakara – Capital City**

Jack was waiting patiently outside the council chamber. He didn't know for how long exactly he had been waiting there, but he was sure it had been for too long. He'd heard on several occasions the people inside raise their voices, also recognizing, on more than one occasion, Teal'c as the one to raise it. It looked as Gerak was too stubborn to understand the severity of the situation they were in. Jack remembered the day he met Gerak for the first time. It took him less than a minute to understand what kind of person he was and that inevitably they would have a lot of problems in dealing with him. To his astonishment and also great disappointment, Gerak became the new leader of the Jaffa, something he hadn't expected or wanted. To him, it should have been Bra'tac or Teal'c the one to be chosen to lead the newly formed Jaffa Nation. Teal'c was the one who fought for their freedom from the very beginning or, if not him, then it should have been Bra'tac as the wisest Jaffa he ever met. As it turns out, apparently the number of ships you have is more important than anything else. It had some old fashioned logic to it, he had to admit. The strongest leads, it was the way Earth was ruled throughout history and in some ways still was. But there was no place in a modern society for a mentality such as this one. The capable and the smart should lead and both of those two attributes were missing in Gerak. The worst of all was that he didn't know how to change it. Gerak was firmly in charge of the FJN and it looked as the number of his supporters was growing instead of diminishing as Jack had thought it should have been.

Jack watched as a Jaffa stormed through the hall and entered the Council chamber. If nothing else, Jack knew he was very good at reading people and that Jaffa looked as if he'd just seen a ghost. His thoughts immediately turned toward Murphy's Law. He didn't know if Murphy was a real person or if it was just something people say, without even remembering how the saying came to be, but what he knew was that it was one of the few laws that in the line of business he was in, he had to watch for on every turn. He also knew there was a mathematical logic to the law, but that part wasn't important to him. The important thing to Jack was the sentence that stayed with him from the first time he'd heard it and then later had experienced firsthand.

'Everything that _can_ go wrong, _will_ go wrong,' the sentence echoed through his mind.

Rationally following the sentence meaning while adding the scared expression he'd just witnessed on the running Jaffa's face, he came to realize that…

'_The shit has just hit the fan,_' Jack thought. Another sentence he used very often in his line of work.

His suspicions were confirmed shortly after when all the council members stormed outside the chamber.

"It's happening isn't it?" Jack asked Teal'c once they'd reached him. On the other hand, Gerak continued his fast pace without even sparing a glance towards him.

"More than a dozen Ha'taks have dropped out of hyperspace a few minutes ago. They opened fire and destroyed the ships we had in orbit," Teal'c explained.

"Where is Gerak going?" Jack asked, curious about the man's fast pace.

"He is leaving Dakara. He wants to reach the gate before troops start landing," Teal'c answered, clearly disgusted by Gerak's behavior. "He said it is paramount the council does not get captured."

"And what about you two?" Jack asked, seeing that Teal'c and Bra'tac weren't following the other members of their council.

"We'll see. Our first task will be to send _you_ back to Earth."

"I'm flattered, but I'm going only if you two are coming with me," Jack said flatly. He saw the two of them were reluctant to comply with his demand, so he decided a little more convincing was in order, "You both know there's nothing you can do by staying here… except maybe getting killed. You have nothing here that can stop this invasion and you know it. Let's go to Earth and start thinking on how we are going to retake Dakara back."

Teal'c and Bra'tac looked at each other. Jack was right and they knew it. They both nodded and together they all rushed toward the exit. Outside, SG-1 and SG-13 had already been appraised of the situation and they were currently checking their weapons and ammo when Jack and the two Jaffa approached them. Without any small talk, they together proceeded further down the stairs leading to the large courtyard where the gate was. In the distance they saw Gerak just passing through the gate that immediately closed behind him. The weasel had managed to escape and before Jack could comment on that, they were all suddenly distracted by a buzzing sound above their heads. Shortly after, they saw two Al'kesh hovering above them and one of them was about to land in the courtyard. They soon realized that reaching the gate wasn't an option anymore. They turned and walked back up the stairs, deciding it was a better choice than a suicide run toward the gate.

Mitchell was the first to speak, "So, what now?"

"Now somebody is going to give me his gun," Jack said, letting everybody know what he thought was going to happen next.

One of the team members offered him his handgun while another did the same with his zat-gun. Jack decided to take them both, holstering the handgun while also taking two extra clips just to be on the safe side. He wasn't sure what good would those guns do him, but he felt naked without them and it couldn't hurt to have more guns or ammo. "Alright, Teal'c, where's the safest place in here?"

"That would be the council chamber we came from, but we want be able to defend it for too long."

"I know that, but we don't have to hold out for much longer. Two of our ships are coming here so we just have to defend our position until they arrive," Jack explained.

Bra'tac had a dubious expression on his face, "O'Neill, I know your ships are powerful, and the crews are certainly made of more than capable warriors, but there are fifteen ships in orbit. Two of your ships will not be enough to stop them."

Jack grinned mischievously, "Normally, I would have to agree with you, but I don't think Baal, or whoever else is up there, will feel too safe when he sees two Aurora class warships, each a mile long. They have the Ancient drones you know, and the last time we used those against a fleet of Ha'taks we proved they are extremely effective against them."

It was true. The Ancient's warships with drones as weapon were the perfect candidate to fight a fleet of Ha'taks. The drones didn't fare too well against the Wraith hives, since it took too many of them to make some serious damage to the massive ships and the same could be said for ships that had shields capable of stopping them, but a Ha'tak didn't fall in any of those two categories. Jack only feared what if the replicator's version of the drones wouldn't work as well as the original drones did when Anubis had attacked Earth, hoping the Ha'tak shielding wasn't capable of stopping them .

"O'Neill, I did not know you have such ships at your disposal," Teal'c said, clearly not knowing.

"Well Teal'c, if you'd spend more time visiting old friends, you _would_ know," Jack retorted, angry his friend never came to visit him.

"You two can discuss you visiting schedule another time, but now we have to move. There's a bounty the Goa'uld have put on my head and I would prefer not letting them know I'm on the planet," Vala interrupted their little verbal scuffle.

Jack turned toward Vala, narrowing his eyes, "Oh somehow I think the Goa'uld won't care too much about you being here with all that is happening."

"I think that too, but Vala's right, we should start moving," Mitchell said, trying to end the entire conversation.

The group agreed, moving to the council chamber as fast as they could. Once there, they took every crate they could find and started improvising defensive positions. The place was perfect to defend. They had the clear view of the large hall, which would make it impossible for someone to attack them by surprise and there was also only one approach the Goa'uld can take so they didn't have to worry about attacks from behind. Mitchell also placed a few claymores and C4s on several locations where he thought it would do the most damage to anyone approaching their position. They had spent the next few minutes going through everything they had with them. They had a few grenades, P90s with enough spare ammo and a few Zat guns. Now the only thing they could do was to wait.

And so they did, for a very long time. They didn't understand why though. The bastards didn't level the place from orbit, which was strange. Jack was sure this was their main goal. Destroy Dakara in order to break the Jaffa's spirit. Then, when they didn't obliterate the city, Jack thought it was because they wanted to capture the council and use them as leverage, but now he wasn't so sure that was the case either. It looked like there was nobody even searching the building. It was almost like they didn't care.

"What is going on here?" Jack observed in frustration.

Teal'c also had the feeling something wasn't right here, "You are correct O'Neill. They should have reached us a long time ago."

"So why haven't they?" Jack asked again. "It looks like they don't even care who's in the building."

"Sir, I think some exploring is on order," Mitchell replied, also not liking the situation.

"You're right Mitchell. We should go and check it out," Jack replied.

'_WE?' _Mitchell thought. "Sir, with all due respect, you should stay here."

"Why?" Jack asked a little pissed.

Mitchell was in a difficult situation. Having his commander in chief wanting to wander around to check things out, while his current job was to protect him, was never a good thing. "Sir, again, with all due respect, that's my job, not yours."

Jack was now really pissed and Teal'c noticed it, "Colonel Mitchell is correct. SG-1 should be the one to go check, and _we _are not part of the team anymore."

Jack was cornered. He knew they were right, but they didn't know how much he hated waiting, "Fine! Take your team and go. I want to know what is going on here A.S.A.P."

Mitchell was about to move when he heard the clanking sound the Jaffa with their medieval armor usually made. He returned to his position behind a crate with his weapon trained at the still empty hall with the others doing the same. Only moments later, Jaffas with their weapons ready entered visual range. They all fired at them taking out the first three unfortunate Jaffas while the others took cover. There were a lot of them, at least two dozen Jaffas and probably more were coming. A small group of them moved forward, taking cover behind another wall. It was a mistake, but they didn't know it at the time. Mitchell had hidden a brick of C4 there and without hesitation he activated the explosive. The loud explosion tossed the three Jaffa in the air like they were made of paper, severing several limbs in the process. It wasn't a pretty sight and the other Jaffas stopped in their tracks, fearing they would make the same mistake. Still, they continued to fire at the entrenched group of people with their staff weapons. The weapon was inaccurate, everybody knew that, but if you put enough effort into it, sooner or later, you would inevitably hit something. One of the SG-13's members got hit in the shoulder, the hit making him drop to the ground in pain. Another soldier made the mistake of going to check how his teammate was. He leaned too much and the Jaffas had a clean shot at him. He got hit straight in the face from another blast. Seeing two defenders drop to the floor, made a group of Jaffa think it was the perfect opportunity to charge forward, and it probably would have been if it wasn't for the row of claymores waiting for them. The directional blasts and the hundreds of metal balls the claymores contained, shredded the approaching Jaffas into pieces, with only one of them not being caught by the massive blast. He didn't even have the time to think about himself as being fortunate because, since he was the only remaining Jaffa in the open, he became the main target of several P90s, drilling him with holes the next instant. The fire from the Jaffa lessened, which made the group of people inside the chamber think they still had a chance, but the Jaffa suddenly got smarter. Since a direct approach would end up in favor of the defenders, they decided to throw the stun grenades they had in the chamber. Three spheres rolled inside with the defenders knowing full well what those things were and that there wasn't enough time to do anything.

"Oh crap!" It was the last thing Jack managed to say before darkness took over him.

Jack woke up in a strange room he'd never seen before. There was a strange pedestal in the middle and beside it, Baal was there, pushing some stones on the top side of the pedestal. It didn't take him long to notice none of his people were there with him.

"**_Oh, you are awake!_**" Baal said after seeing Jack had regained consciousness.

"Where am I? And where's the rest of my people?"

"**_So much questions. Well, if you really want to know, this room here was built by the Ancients a long time ago. And about your team, they are in a cell, unharmed. You don't have to worry about them, for now,_**" Baal explained, remarkably forthcoming giving the circumstance.

"Baal, what are you doing?" Jack said, seeing Baal pushing some stones.

"**_Ah yes, the machine! This machine is a remarkable piece of technology. Did you know that the Ancients used it to spread life in this galaxy?_**"

"No, how would I?"

"**_You are right; you wouldn't know anything about that. I also didn't know about it until recently._**"

"Is this the reason why you came here?" Jack asked.

"**_Yes, you see, apparently this machine is capable of spreading life, but it is also capable of taking it,_**" Baal replied while still pushing some buttons.

"Taking it?" Jack was now confused.

"**_Yes, once the machine is calibrated correctly, you can fire an expanding field that kills every living thing in its path. It can also be set to target a specific life form, like humans for example._**"

"And you intend to use it on the planet?"

"**_Not exactly. You see, the gate system can also be configured to open a connection to every other gate in this galaxy at the same time, and if you fire the device while the gates are connected…_**" Baal smiled, leaving Jack to think about how the sentence would end.

"What! You want to kill every human in the galaxy?" Jack asked incredulously.

"**_Yeah, that's the idea,_**" Baal answered, but there was no joy in his voice.

"Baal, I know you are a despicable parasite with a god complex bent on galactic domination and with probably many-many other flaws that I don't have neither the time or will to recount, but… isn't this a _little_ too extreme even for you?" Jack said.

Baal sighed, "**_Once again you are correct. This is not my will my dear friend,_**" Baal said with a little too much theatrics.

"So, why are you doing it for crying out laud?"

Baal shrugged even more, "**_Anubis. He is the one forcing me to do this._**"

"Anubis? He is behind this? But why?"

"**_Because he wants to start anew after he kills all current sentient life in this galaxy._**"

"Baal, if that is true, you must know he is going to kill you too."

"**_I have that suspicion, but I still haven't found a way to get out of this without him torturing me for the next thousand years, and you know how painful it can be._**"

"Yeah, I know. Thanks to you, I know it very well," Jack retorted, remembering the torture he had to endure while he'd been Baal's prisoner.

Baal smiled, remembering those times as well, "**_Don't mention it, it was a real pleasure doing it._**"

"Can we go back to the topic of destroying all life in the galaxy please?" Jack grunted, clearly pissed.

"**_I've told you, there is nothing we can do. Anubis expects me to finish my job in a very short time and the Jaffas are here to watch me as much as anybody else. It took me a lot of convincing to make them leave me alone in here. And the Jaffa's fleet is so far away that it will take them at least a week to come back. So you see, there is nothing I can do to stop it._**"

Jack thought about it for a moment, "What if I told you, you'd need to stall this doomsday weapon from firing for, let's say, less than an hour."

"**_How?_**"

Jack didn't know if he should trust Baal with anything. As far as he knew Baal could change his mind and he would have given him vital information for nothing. On the other hand, it looked like Baal was very close to activating the device so, even if he didn't tell him, he suspected he would be able to use the weapon before the two ships could arrive, "A fleet is coming here from Earth, and they will be here in less than an hour."

"**_How is that possible?_**" Baal asked not understanding how a fleet from Earth could already be on its way here.

"Oh please, what do you think I'm here for? I was here to warn them of your master plan."

"**_That's impossible. No one knew about this plan._**"

"Let's just say we figure it out and leave it at that. Can we go back now to my original question? Can you stall it for that long?"

Baal stayed in silence for a long moment, several scenarios going through his head. Most of them ended up with him dead or in Anubis' hands, something he wasn't too happy about. He needed some more reassurances, "**_I can, and I will, if you give me your word that you will let me leave through the gate after this situation is resolved._**"

Jack narrowed his eyes, "You do know I'm the man you tortured for several weeks, killing me countless times only to start the whole process again and again?"

"**_I don't expect you to like it, but yes I'm asking you to give me your word you'll do it._**"

Jack sighed in desperation. He was about to sign another contract with the devil and he really didn't like it, "Fine, I give you my word, but my word is only valid for one day. After that, all bets are off."

"**_I can live with that... literally. I'll try to slow down the process as much as I can without raising too many questions. Those Jaffa are dumb as rocks, but they will start asking awkward questions sooner or later. Let's hope for the galaxy's sake your fleet is not running late._**"

"Don't worry about them; they'll be here on schedule. There are a few other things we could do to make sure this plan succeeds."

"**_I'm listening…_**"

The next half hour Baal spent pushing the wrong stones on the machine in an attempt to buy some precious time. Jack also told him to ask the guards to bring the rest of his people here. They would be a good addition if things suddenly decided to go south. On several occasions the Jaffa returned inside asking why the machine wasn't ready yet. Baal knew how to make them back off a few times by asking them if they wanted to do it instead of him or something similar, but the number of excuses he had up his sleeves was becoming very thin. On the other side of the room Jack and the rest of his people where making plans on how to take down the guards if it came to that. They didn't have their weapons with them and that made things a little more difficult. Convincing the guards to bring the rest of the team here was difficult enough, asking the guards to bring their weapons with them was short of impossible.

It was almost time and they all knew it. It was a question of moments if the ships would arrive first or the guards under Anubis' orders would force Baal to finish the weapon. Jack also knew that under threat, Baal would choose the option to complete the weapon rather than being killed.

Anubis' First Prime entered the small room and looked at Baal with a threatening look on his face, telling him even without saying anything that the weapon must be ready or he was a dead man, "Fire the weapon."

Baal tried to deny it, "**_I still have a few tests I need to do to be certain everything is in order._**"

The First Prime moved one more step toward Baal, now having his face only inches from his, "I told you to fire the weapon, or you die!"

Baal knowing this man wasn't bluffing, caved in, "**_Alright, I'm firing. Just give me one more second._**"

Jack nodded to the rest of his man and they all jumped to their feet and rushed toward the half dozen guards standing there. It wasn't pretty. They rushed toward the guards with their hand sill tied down, trying to fight them with their own body and legs, but it was a losing battle. The guards swept a few of them with their staff weapon, the others using their Zat guns instead. It lasted less than a minute, but maybe a minute was all that it took.

* * *

**Dakara's Orbit**

Only minutes earlier, the two auroras had come out of hyperspace and changed course immediately to face the invasion fleet in orbit above Dakara. Their presence did scare the living shit out of the Jaffa manning the ships who had never seen such ships before. They were almost three times longer than a Ha'tak was and they looked pretty menacing. They had no idea how much, but they were about to find out.

No matter how menacing the ships were the fleet didn't back down. They still had a numerical superiority, which gave them confidence this battle might be won. The Ha'taks fired their engines moving on an intercept course for the two approaching ships. The Jaffas literally shit their pants when they saw what happened next. They all had heard about the accursed weapon the Tau'ri had used to destroy Anubis' fleet above Earth. They all had heard about the shiny objects flying in swarms and destroying countless ships with ease, but they didn't think they had ships with those things from hell as well.

Streams of drones flew from the two auroras toward the approaching Ha'taks, splitting up on several different vectors once they drew near the enemy fleet. The streams weren't as thick as the one fired from Antarctica because the ships didn't have a ZPM to power so much of them at the same time, but it was still enough. The Ha'taks fired back on the two approaching ships. The auroras shields took a lot of hits, glowing brightly from all the impacts, but they didn't falter. The massive shield generators were capable of a lot more punishment, too much for the approaching Ha'taks who were about to meet their doom.

Since there were a lot less drones fired than it was the case with the outpost on Antarctica, the captains of the two ships decided to go for disabling the enemy ships, rather than trying to completely destroy them. Approximately a dozen drones hit every enemy ship, all of them bypassing their shields without hesitation or delay and hitting several critical areas all around the ships. Weapons control, shield generators, power conduits, and sublight and hyperspace engines were the drones' targets. Secondary explosions rocked the Ha'taks, some of them immediately losing power to propulsion and weapons, others completely shutting down after their main conduits were severed. The two ships fired some more drones to disable the few remaining ships stubborn enough to still fire or move until only one Ha'tak remained undamaged. When Anubis had seen the two ships, he knew what they were. Having the knowledge of an ascended being he knew who built those ships, how powerful their shields were and most importantly what kind of weapon they used. So, instead of participating in the incoming battle, he had decided to remain in orbit above the planet, outside weapons range. And now he was ready to flee.

* * *

**Dakara**

On the planet's surface things didn't look too well. The last threat the First Prime of Anubis made to Baal was enough to make him activate the device. Baal was sweating, for the first time realizing how screwed he was and how insane this whole thing really is. The gate connected with every other gate in the galaxy. The sphere on top of the mountain was already opening up and charging the massive field that would eventually spread in every direction.

"Baal, you can't do this!" Jack yelled at him.

"**_It is already too late O'Neill. The weapon cannot be stopped anymore._**" Baal answered simply.

The weapon fired, releasing the expanding field in all directions. The field went everywhere. It spread on the entire planet of Dakara and from there further into space. It crossed the boundary of the gate's event horizon, spreading on all planets that had a gate on them. From there the field spread further and further throughout entire systems and the space between. To everyone's surprise, nothing happened. There was another thing that Baal did. Without the guards seeing him he had pushed one of the stones for a few inches down just before the weapon had fired. When Baal pushed one of the stones down, he changed the parameters of the destructive field. There was still a chance the weapon did kill some kind of life form somewhere in the universe, but Baal thought he could live with himself if the result was the genocide of some kind of squirrels or any other type of animal and he knew the chances were that even that didn't happen.

The guards inside didn't know if the weapon worked as it was planned. Everything looked the same as before. The building was shielded, so they shouldn't have felt anything in the first place. The First Prime tried to contact the ships in orbit, but there was no response. He thought it was the result of the weapon's fire that killed everybody in the system. He was wrong, and when he understood the truth, it was too late. The guards exited the compound, and to their utter confusion, they saw people still roaming the city. The first Prime was angered beyond measure. Baal had tricked them and he now needed to pay, but there was another piece of the puzzle he didn't understand. Why nobody in orbit had answered his calls. He understood what happened when the wrong kind of soldiers came through the ring platform down to the planet and drones started raining from above, hitting the Al'kesh landed on the surface. From behind him, Baal and all the prisoners turned a corner with all their weapons with them and ready to fire. He tried to raise his weapon, but it was too late. Bursts from P90s shredded him and the rest of the guards in mere seconds.

After that, there was not much that needed to be done. Only a few dozen Jaffas were on the planet in the first place. The initial plan was to have all troops leave the system before the weapon fired with only a couple of dozens remaining inside the building. The timetable had changed slightly because of Anubis' impatience, but still most of the Jaffas were on their ships and not on the planet's surface when it happened. All of this made the mopping up process much easier for the various teams that were transported on the surface with the ring platforms. The two Aurora's didn't have beaming technology on them, something they were going to change the first chance they got.

Soon, more Terran ships had arrived after being recalled from the other locations they had been sent. The Ha'taks in orbit had been captured and Jack decided to give those ships to Teal'c and Bra'tac, as the only two council member who'd stayed and fought the invasion. There was another thing Jack needed to do. Something he really didn't want. He had to let Baal go and it was so painful that Jack would rather cut of his left hand instead. Several people there told him he didn't have to do it. Teal'c, Bra'tac, Mitchell and even Vala were all telling him that they could just shoot him and bury him somewhere behind some large rock and no one would ever know he gave him his word. The problem was, he would know. Teal'c and Bra'tac understood and even admired Jack for what he was about to do. On the other hand Mitchell and Vala didn't get it at all. They wanted Baal dead, period.

Baal went through the gate. Jack's only hope was the snakehead would stay somewhere hidden for the rest of his life. Since he was a wanted parasite from almost everybody in the galaxy, Jack thought maybe that would really be the case. In the end, he didn't know if this attack ended up being a good thing or a bad thing. First, they now knew there's a device here they previously didn't know anything about. Secondly, the Goa'uld got kicked pretty badly this time and their ships ended up in Teal'c and Bra'tac's possession. And last but not least, they all saw the real face of Gerak. Gerak was a coward, who didn't care about anyone else then himself. Fortunately, the FJN valued the number of ships someone had more than anything else, so the fourteen new ships Teal'c and Bra'tac had acquired and once repaired would make them much more influential in the FJN. Jack didn't know how Gerak would take the news, so he decided to remain on the planet even though there was nothing else he could do to help.

It didn't take long for Gerak and his entourage to return to Dakara. Gerak's face was not that of a happy man, it was something Jack noticed immediately after Gerak stepped out of the gate. To put more salt to the already infected and painful wound, Jack put the largest smile on his face he could muster.

This didn't escape Teal'c' incredible observational skills, "You are trying to anger him even more."

"Oh yeah," Jack answered while stubbornly trying to keep his smile as widely as possible.

Gerak also saw Jack's expression and he knew what he was trying to do. He stopped in front of the three of them, looking intently at Jack for a long time before turning toward Teal'c and Bra'tac, "Have all the enemy troops been captured."

"Yes, all enemies have been apprehended," Teal's replied simply.

"Good. Execute them all," Gerak said without hesitation.

Teal'c was a little pissed, mostly because he'd really started to dislike Gerak's attitude in general, but also because he didn't like what he'd just heard, "Some of them have expressed their wish to join us."

"We can't trust them. They will all be a remainder of what happens if you go against the FJN," Gerak replied evenly.

"No," Teal'c replied stoically.

Gerak turned toward Teal'c, fumes coming out of his ears, "How dare you defy my orders!"

Teal'c continued without raising his voice, "We have always given a chance to our brothers to do the right thing. I am not prepared to change that."

Gerak was in a bad position and he knew it. On one hand this entire ordeal made him look bad, as the Tau'ri were the one who had to warn him about the Goa'uld threat and secondly, because two council members remained on the planet making them look like heroes, and making him look like a coward. Another problem was, he didn't know how much he can push Teal'c. Behind his usual mask of calmness, the man looked already angry enough, and under their laws, if he offended Teal'c enough, he could challenge him to the death. Gerak was a good fighter, with a lot of experience, but he was no match for Teal'c, "Fine, but they are your responsibility now."

Teal'c simply bowed, fully accepting the responsibility.

"Good. Have the captured ships been repaired?"

"Their primary systems are being repaired as we speak. It will take at least another day," Teal'c explained.

"Good, they will make a good addition to my fleet."

At that point Jack had to intervene, no matter what rules of conversation the Jaffa had, "Eh, excuse me, those ships belong to Teal'c and Bra'tac and not to you."

Gerak looked angrily at Jack, "And why would you think that?"

"Well, those ships upstairs were beaten and then captured by the Terrans and I have graciously given them to Teal'c and Bra'tac as a sign of friendships." Jack answered.

Gerak had been cornered again. This really wasn't his day. He couldn't fault Jack's logic since he wasn't even here so he could not claim any rights to those ships, and from Teal'c and Bra'tac faces he knew they were not about to give away those ships.

Seeing how Gerak's face was about to explode, Bra'tac decided to add something, "And we have already accepted them. We should think of a way to thank and repay the Tau'ri for all the help they have given us… _and _for those valuable gifts as well."

If Gerak knew what was coming, he would have stayed away for longer. He was now in a position where he had to thank O'Neill for his help and also find some way of repaying them. This day could not get any worse. "So, you are probably still here because you expect me to thank you."

"You betcha," Jack grinned.

"Well you are waiting in vain. All of this is your fault anyway. Why would I thank you?" Gerak spat back angrily.

'_FUCK YOU!" _Jack thought to himself, finally dropping his smile. People will probably talk for years to come how, at that exact moment, they could swear they saw a dark cloud form above the man. Jack was angry, pissed, enraged, and infuriated beyond measure. He was ready to skin the guy alive in front of all those witnesses. It was one thing to work against them every time they tried to help, but to publicly accuse him, it was just too much.

He was also incredibly curious on how Gerak managed to get to that conclusion, "Can you please _enlighten_ me how you came to that conclusion?"

"If you didn't take those cannons away from us, this would have never happen."

"What?" Jack was stunned. He could barely remember the time when they brought those cannons on Dakara. They did it to defend the planet after they took it from Baal. At that time, Earth had only three of those cannons and they explained how they would only loan them the cannons until Dakara wasn't free from the siege. "You know those cannons were on loan. At the time, we only had three of them and the moment Dakara was free, we needed them back to defend Earth."

Gerak knew he didn't have a real case here, but he was already neck deep in accusations and he didn't know how to get out of it. Well, he knew how, but he wasn't about to apologize to the man, "And what about what happened here today? How convenient you just had a fleet ready to save us all. And how convenient it was that you knew exactly when and where the Goa'uld would strike at us."

At first Jack didn't understand where Gerak was going with this. What was he implying? Then realization came to him. Gerak was implying that all of this had been staged by him. He was implying that Jack worked with the Goa'uld and that he had told the Goa'uld how to attack the FJN.

Jack was very close to explode. The arrogance and stupidity of this man had no equals. He felt the still holstered handgun at his right side, his hands twitching at the thought of shooting the man. Teal'c must have sensed something because he managed to react before something even worse could happen.

Teal'c was at the moment both enraged and humiliated and Gerak was the reason why. He was pissed at Gerak for his behavior, and he was humiliated because Gerak still represented his people as a whole. He saw how Jack was at his limits, he actually wasn't certain how that man could take so much crap without shooting the guy. He would have snapped the idiot's neck a long time ago if he was in his place. Still, he had to stop this or the FJN could end up in a war they could not win. "GERAK! LEAVE!"

Gerak was stunned by Teal'c's reaction. He was still their leader and no one talks to him like this. On the other hand, the situation was so screwed that leaving was actually a good thing for him. He also suspected there were at least two people there who were more than ready to kill him.

Gerak smirked at the two of them before walking away toward the main building with his followers in tow.

After waiting for a few moments, Jack took a deep breath, "Well, that was fun!"

One of the council members who had remained approached Jack. She had an expression that clearly showed how humiliated she felt, "Please accept my apology for Gerak's behavior," She turned to point at the other council members who remained there. "We do not share Gerak's beliefs and we thank you for your help in saving our most holy planet… again."

Jack smiled at her, "Thank you but I can't accept your apology. It is not you who needs to apologize."

The woman bowed in gratitude, albeit not certain if that meant that Jack just didn't think of her as being responsable for Gerak's actions, or if they would go to war with the Terrans if Gerak didn't apologize in person. She decided she would ask Teal'c on a later time and, with the rest of the council members, she quickly moved past the three of them.

Jack, Teal'c and Bra'tac remained in silence for a long time, contemplating what had just happened.

It was time for Jack to leave, but he needed to point out one last thing before doing so. He turned toward Teal'c and Bra'tac, "You both know that _that_ man has to go, and sooner it happens the better will be for all of us. You are trying to build a strong and independent nation, and the Terrans want you to succeed so that, one day, we can make a real alliance between our two people. Both things will _never _happen if that man stays in charge." Jack paused for a moment before giving his two friends his goodbyes, "Farewell friends, come visit any time."

The two of them bowed to their departing friend. They remained there standing alone for a long time before Bra'tac broke the silence, "Gerak must go."

"Indeed my friend."

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy**

One of the universal laws of nature is that everything is connected in one way or another. Even the not immediately clear relation between space, hyperspace and subspace is such that changes made in one will inevitably be transferred to the other two. Hyperspace and subspace are the most similar. Someone could even say they are one and the same. hyperspace is a much shallower layer than subspace is, and that is the only reason why you can travel through hyperspace, but you cannot through subspace. In the same way an intergalactic hyperdrive, opposed to a weaker version, is nothing more than a device that allows a ship to enter hyperspace much deeper, and by doing so, a ship can cross much greater distances while using the same amount of power. Someone could also thing that even more advanced hyperdrives can eventually be capable of punching so deep to reach the deepest layer people call subspace, but that isn't the case. Instead, the hyperdrive will create a wormhole, something that can be described as a tunnel that connects two points in space.

Subspace on the other hand, has his own use. You cannot punch deep enough to travel through it, but you can send signals. That's how people can communicate at speeds faster than the velocity at which signals travel in normal space, the speed of light. There's another use of subspace that makes him very important. Everything that happens in space or in hyperspace is registered in subspace, usually referred to as subspace noise. If someone has the adequate equipment, he can theoretically listen to that noise, and if he understands it, he can know everything that happens in the entire universe. That's the principle on which subspace sensors work. It isn't easy, and greater the distance, the noise will be inevitably fainter and more difficult to decipher.

Thinking about those basic principles of extra-dimensional physics made Liam wonder why he wasn't picking anything through the aforementioned subspace noise. He was standing very close to the strange anomaly his people had found and still his sensors could not pick anything.

Since the anomaly connected two points in space across incredible distance, Liam knew by definition the anomaly must be some kind of wormhole, but not a type he had ever seen in his entire life. And his lifespan hadn't been short by any standard. He'd spent thousands of years as a mortal and millions more as an ascended being. He knew he didn't remember everything of the time he was ascended, it was impossible to store so many memories in his physical form, but he was certain he had never seen anything like it when he was ascended. Except the fact that his sensors didn't register anything, another thing also bothered him. The wormhole appeared to be self-sustainable, something he also thought impossible. To make things worse, he was certain that somebody _made_ that thing, as opposed to being purely a natural phenomenon. The evidence of that was the fact that on the other side, there were six wormholes in a perfectly symmetrical hexagon, with the seventh being in the center. If anything else, Liam knew that nature doesn't care much about symmetry. Only intelligent beings are always trying to bring order to things or to build them in some aesthetically pleasing geometrical form. Nature doesn't care for such things. Nature is ruled by chaos. Hence, forms like a perfect hexagon of self-sustainable wormholes is a clear indication nature didn't do it.

Liam was depressed. The Goa'uld, Wraith, Ori and now this. When he thought it through, he came to believe maybe Aenea _did _warn him to watch for other things for a good reason. Maybe the Ori weren't his biggest problem after all. Anything that can build something like this, could prove to be an even greater threat than the Ori, Wraith and Goa'uld combined. His only hope was that whoever built those things was long gone, and the Senari had just found them and started using them. If this wasn't the case, and they prove to be an enemy, he could be facing beings that are technologically eons ahead of him and probably old enough to make him look like a child, only now making his first steps.

It didn't matter now. Now he had to worry about the Senari and leave everything else for a later time. And he had a lot to worry about. Since they'd sent that probe through the wormhole, the Senari had intensified their efforts. More ships than ever had come through the anomaly and they were more aggressive than ever. Liam believed that in the next month or so, they would reach the region of space the Edenians inhabited and he was adamant in stopping them before that might happen. He now also had the asset to do it, and he even knew how.

Finally, the long and eagerly awaited construction of the first two battleships had been completed. The battleship was very different in design and function than the cruisers. The cruisers were meant to be very maneuverable and fast, capable of outmatching any capital ship in a dogfight. The battleship on the other hand, was a kilometer long beast capable of taking several enemy's ships at the same time. Point defense lasers would take care of any incoming fighters dumb enough to come too close, and scores of plasma batteries could fire in all directions, covering the entire ship no matter from which direction the enemy was coming. If this wasn't enough, the ships had massive beam energy weapons that dwarfed the ones installed on the cruisers. The three frontal cannons could take multiple targets in one shot with ease. To power such a beast, Liam put five massive Naquadah/Naquadria reactors of the latest generation, each of them capable of producing five times more power than the reactors installed on the cruisers. He had also placed massive capacitors that could be charged and used as reserve energy when or if it was needed. The ship also had a pedestal were you could install an additional ZPM, but he didn't plan on them as the ship's primary energy source. He had enough ZPMs for now, but building ships that relied on something he could not build in any reasonable time or quantity wasn't a very good idea. One day he could have hundreds of battleships, thousands of cruisers and even dreadnoughts almost as large as his own ship. He knew he wouldn't have enough ZPMs to power so many ships, and that was the main reason why all of his ship designs didn't have ZPMs as their primary power source.

The only ship he knew that was more powerful than the newly built battleships was his own ship. His two miles long beast, powered by scores of reactors and three ZPMs was the culmination of Alterran knowhow he had collected as a mortal being as well as an ascended one. The construction of the ship had taken almost twenty years before he went to sleep for the ten thousand long years, and two years of constant improvements after that. The long period was the reason why such a ship would probably never be built ever again.

Liam now had a descent fleet in the Andromeda galaxy. Two battleships, four cruisers, four destroyers and six corvettes were his assets in this galaxy. He could also bring the six remaining cruisers he had in the other two galaxies, but for now he thought he had enough firepower for what he intended to do. When he thought on how to fight the Senari, he realized they had one serious flaw. They were too aggressive. On several occasions they showed how they would attack anything in sight no matter if the enemy was stronger or in greater numbers than they were at the moment. Any strategist you ask will tell you that there is time to fight and there is time to retreat and that fighting a losing battle is as bad as surrendering. The Senari, for some unknown reason, didn't understand the concept of a strategic retreat. The same thing could in part be said for the Jaffa, believing in their warrior's pride no matter what the situation demanded. To exploit their weakness, Liam's idea was to seek the Senari with overwhelming firepower, knowing that they wouldn't retreat no matter what.

Liam was waiting, his subspace sensors already telling him there was a large disturbance in hyperspace moving toward him. His fleet was coming and, once here, they would show the five Senari ships standing near the anomaly what a grave mistake they'd made by coming here.

The two battleships, four cruisers and two destroyers exited hyperspace near Liam's ship and together they pushed forward in a wall formation toward the enemy ships. The enemy ships detected the newcomers and turned to face them in battle, shields and weapons already powered and ready to fire. The battleships forward cannons where the first to fire since they had a slightly greater range than the other ships. They fired their three beams focusing on one ship each. The massive energy surges hit the Senari capital ships in full, shields glowing brightly and visibly straining to keep the beams from slicing through the ships. The Senari warships fired back, mostly focusing on the two larger ships that fired first. The cruisers and destroyers fired shortly after, adding more chaos to the fray.

What the Senari didn't know was that Liam's ship was flanking them while traveling under his cloak. Liam disengaged the cloak while at the same time powering the shield. He was facing the starboard side of the Senari ships.

Liam and William (VI-Liam) were standing on the bridge of the ship, watching intently the development of the raging battle outside.

"Fire the primary weapon," Liam ordered to William who smiled at the idea.

The massive particle accelerator that went through the better part of the ship's length, started to hum, with antiprotons starting to form inside the large chamber and flying in every direction only to be stopped by the strong containment field holding them all together and away from the walls of the massive cannon. The number of antimatter particles continued to increase exponentially throughout the entire length of the cannon as well as in a massive rear containment chamber that would fuel the accelerator even further once it fired. The containment field squeezed the particles tighter and tighter until the only thing you could see was a blinding brightness throughout the entire length of the cannon. The system entered the next and final stage of the firing sequence by powering the massive gravimetric and magnetic subsystems that, once charged, would push the antiprotons out at relativistic speed.

The cannon reached the desired strength and fired the massive beam of antiprotons at nearly the speed of light. The antimatter at that speed created an additional field of distorted space-time around the beam, an additional effect the fast moving antiprotons made and that greatly increased the weapons effectiveness. The beam struck the shields of the enemy ship, the space-time distortion folding the enemy ship's shields in such a way that the antiprotons were able to pass through almost without impediment. The antiprotons hit the electrons in the outer shell of the atoms the ship's hull was made of. In that moment, matter met antimatter, converting their mass into pure and utterly destructive energy. The antiprotons were much heavier than the electrons so they split into smaller subatomic particles that continued on their path of destruction, hitting more and more matter on their way and releasing more energy as they went while spreading in every direction inside the ship. The ship started to explode from the inside out at the same time as the beam found his way through the other side, exiting and hitting the next ship unfortunate enough to be directly in the line of the beam. The second ship ended the same way as the first one, the beam going through as if nothing could stop it or even slow it down. The two ships exploded with the strength of hundreds of megatons of destructive power as a direct result of the recombination process of matter and antimatter.

Liam looked in awe at the destructive power of the weapon he had designed, "Impressive. What was it, 20 percent power?"

William turned to face Liam with a look that said '_are you kidding' _before answering, "Ten."

"Well, now I know what overkill means." Liam said with a grin on his face.

"I agree. Do you want me to fire again? Maybe to see if we can achieve the same with only five percent," William asked eagerly, wanting to do it again.

"No, there is no need for that. We have tested the weapon and that is enough for now. Let the other ships have some fun."

William nodded even though he wasn't too happy about it and Liam noticed, "Oh come on! You fired the weapon and you have a new body to play with. Be happy for once. Besides, I think there will be many more occasions to use the weapon, so don't worry, you'll have your fun. How's your new body by the way?"

"It feels great, although I don't like the fact that I have a limited power supply. If I go outside the ship for more than twenty four hours, I shut down."

"I know, I know, don't worry. I'm already working on a much more powerful power source, but with all the nagging you gave me lately I didn't have enough time to build it yet, at least not if you wanted your body ready so soon." Liam explained.

"It's fine, and I'm thankful. Just don't forget about it, alright."

"I want. Besides, I have the feeling you'll be here to remind me if I ever do."

William looked the main display, "Oh look, another ship is history."

The Guardians had just destroyed another ship, leaving only two enemy ships still standing. It was almost unbelievable. The two remaining ships were still coming even though they didn't have a chance in hell of doing anything, "Notify the other ships to keep their distance. They could decide to ram one of our ships just for spite. It could break our perfect score."

The Guardians did their job well. They kept their distance, slowly destroying the remaining enemy ships while making sure they couldn't employ some suicidal tactic that could damage or even destroy one of theirs. Shortly after, there was nothing else left to shoot at and Liam ordered the fleet to leave. They had a few more locations they knew about with fewer Senari ships. Those targets, if destroyed, will weaken the Senari even further and hopefully delay them from entering into their region of space. As long as the Senari didn't know from where they were coming, they had the clear advantage and soon, he would have even more ships, maybe even enough to be capable of stopping them from coming through the wormhole. Liam calculated that the Senari must have more than fifty ships in this galaxy and he still wasn't confident he could hold this place against them if they all came.

In the last year he had built several more shipyards and other facilities in all three galaxies, mostly because of the ever increasing number of enemies he was facing. In the beginning he thought the Wraith would be his greatest challenge, but now he knew there would be more. That thought made Liam realize he should start thinking a little more about the Wraith. He should formalize the already existing alliance between the Asgard and the Terrans and together hit the Wraith hard before some new enemy entered the fray.

* * *

**Milky Way galaxy – unknown planet **

The planet was filled with beautiful green pastures and forests with tall and proud trees, casting their shadows to the ground from the bright yellow sun that heated the planet toward a perfect climate. The planet was a paradise for the few small towns full of humans inhabiting the planet. There was no sign of advanced technology corrupting the natural beauty of this place and the people here were simple farmers who didn't know anything about galactic affairs, wars and races bent on domination. Most importantly, it looked as if they didn't even care. They lived their lives in peace and the gate that stood firmly only a few miles from the largest town was something they didn't even know what it was. The Goa'uld had never been here, or at least the people didn't remember if they ever had. The people here didn't know there were other worlds with more humans on them either, but that fact was about to change.

The gate started to spin, making the few people in the vicinity stop doing whatever they were doing. They had never seen the massive ring do something like this before, so their frightened reaction was very understandable. What happened next made them flinch even more, some of them even deciding it was time to run away toward their town. The device literally exploded in front of them, leaving a puddle of water standing vertically instead of horizontally, as the only way they knew water could stand still. From the puddle of water, one man came through. He looked human to them, or at least, almost human. His skin was a little too pale for their taste and he had some strange markings on his face, but that wasn't so frightening to the people there. Many of their own people had some markings on their faces or other body parts.

The man walked toward the few people brave enough to remain there. He had some strange stick in one hand and a book in the other. The man looked at them for a long time before he finally spoke.

"Hallowed are the Ori."


	6. Chapter 6: Evolution

**Andromeda Galaxy – Liam's Ship**

Liam read the report his people had made for him about the priors they had occasionally spotted on a few planets. The priors were powerful and not only in the usual sense. Their greatest power was the religion they were spreading. Origin was sound and many humans on several worlds listened intently when a prior spoke and with the psychic powers they had, it was easy to convince them they were sent here by gods. More and more people were starting to believe in Origin and the fact that the prior would offere them ascension after they died was too alluring to refuse. Besides, the only thing they had to do was to pray to some beings and nothing more and as reward they would give them everlasting life.

"Who wouldn't accept something like that?" Liam spoke at loud to no one.

Another question was how to fight them. One way was to try and convince people that what the Priors were offering was a lie, but he knew that it wasn't going to be easy. Another problem was that the Prior would kill anybody who didn't accept Origin and that was another incentive to accept it even if they didn't believe him. That was another problem Liam didn't know how to solve, but he had an idea how to even the odds.

William entered the lab where Liam was working on something. He walked toward Liam, stopping only meters away from him and looking at what Liam was working with a puzzled expression on his face, "Liam, what are you doing?"

Liam grumbled something that William didn't understand, "Liam, please answer me in any coherent language, I know them all."

Liam sighed. For some reason he was very reluctant to answer, "I'm modifying the stasis pod."

William was now even more puzzled, "Okay, I can see that, but how… or for what purpose?"

Liam sighed again, "Don't you have something else to do?"

That question made William realize that something was wrong, but he was still unable to put all the pieces together, "Do I have something else to do? Liam, what the hell is going on?"

"Nothing is wrong… everything is fine or better to say everything _will_ be fine." Liam replied, not taking his eyes from the device in front of him.

William was by now worried, "Liam, are you doing something stupid?" The VI asked, but then stopped in his tracks thinking of something, "Liam, tell me you're not doing what I thing you're doing?"

"I can't be certain of what you are thinking I'm doing, so…"

William had the sudden urge to beat the crap out of him, "Don't give me that bullshit. You know very well what I think you are doing and if that is the case you have to stop right now."

"No, I won't."

"You are putting a time dilation field inside the stasis pod, aren't you?"

"That wasn't that hard to figure out. I'm holding a time dilation device in my hand and the stasis pod is in front of me. If you didn't get it, I would be very worried about you." Liam stated still working on the stasis pod.

"The problem is not if I understand what you are building, but for what you intend to use it. You want to use the stasis pod to accelerate your evolution won't you?"

"That is the general idea, yes. What's the problem?"

"You have gone utterly and completely insane, that's the problem. You are having problems with your little experiment as it is. What do you think will happen if you do this? And don't tell me everything will be fine because I will punch you so hard that you won't need the stasis pod to kill yourself."

Liam sighed again, "Look, I have to do it. I didn't plan it, but with all the things that are going on, I need every advantage I can get."

"And killing yourself you call an advantage!"

"I'm not going to kill myself, or at least not if the entire process wasn't going to kill me anyway. And in that case I don't care."

"Maybe what you are saying is true, but even if the experiment would eventually kill you, it would take thousands of years for that to happen. On the other hand, if you use the stasis pod it won't be thousands of years, but hours."

"Look, I decided I'm going to do this. The device is ready and it will accelerate the process in a way that the next few hours I'm going to spend inside, will result in several thousand years. The only question is if you are going to monitor the whole thing or are you going to soak somewhere and leave me to do this alone?" Liam said with finality in his voice. There won't be any more discussion and William knew it.

Reluctantly William decided he would help monitor the situation and try to help in any way possible. The stasis pod Liam modified would keep him in a coma for several hours until the process was complete. At least that would be the time on the outside. Inside, Liam would spend several thousand years, his body evolving the entire time. The device would only slow down if it detected that something was wrong and Liam was certain it wouldn't even happen.

Liam lay down inside the pod that automatically closed the top cover once he was inside. The pod powered up, pushing Liam in an artificially induced coma.

Liam predicted there wouldn't be any problems, but that wasn't what William witnessed. The pod had to dial down the time dilation field several times, a few times maximizing the healing device imbedded in the pod to heal Liam's body. As time passed by, the pod was beginning to register more and more abnormal fluctuations in Liam functions and in several occasions it had to revert time back to normal to better check if everything was going as predicted. William also tried to understand what was going on, but they were entering into unknown waters, where neither one of them knew what could be classified as normal and what abnormal.

The next hour, William had spent straining his batteries to their limits with his incredibly fast pacing up and down the lab. It was the only thing he could do. One thing made him feel a little better though. The pod didn't revert time once in the last half hour and William hoped it was because the process had finally stabilized itself. William sighed even though he didn't have lungs, but some things remained reflexive in him even now that he was a machine.

The pod beeped. The process had finished its work in a little over three hours, almost two hours longer than what Liam had predicted because he didn't take into account all the times the pod had to slow down time. William hurried to the pod that was already opening itself. Liam was alive, that was a good sign, but he was still in a coma. William looked at him for a few moments, then decided a little pocking was in order. He stabbed Liam with his finger a few times. Nothing. He stabbed him again a little harder.

"Ouch!"

Maybe he did it a little too hard, but he didn't care, "Liam, how do you feel?"

Liam slowly opened his eyes, which made his eyes hurt because of the light, "Why is the light so bright?"

William looked around, "It isn't." William ordered the ship to dim the lights a little.

"Ah, that's better." Liam replied.

Liam went to a sitting position trying to feel his body. He felt it a little weird. Everything around him felt a little… different somehow.

"Would you please answer me? How do you feel?" William snapped at him.

"I feel fine… great actually."

William was glad, but the beeping sound on one of the monitors made him turn, "Uh Liam, you brain activity is a little high."

"How high?"

"A lot. Through the ruff kind of high."

Liam jumped out of the pod feeling his legs, "Then it worked! We did it! You see, everything went…"

* * *

**The Higher Plane**

Liam suddenly found himself in a very bright and apparently endless place. He didn't have time to think where he was when suddenly all of his previous memories of this place surged back to him all at once, hitting him like a hammer. He remembered everything.

"Crap! Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Liam grumbled.

"Liam?" the voice of Aenea echoed through the endless plane.

Liam turned toward Aenea, "Aenea, you are here."

"Liam, you look… different. What are you doing here?" Aenea said while scrutinizing her husband.

Liam sighed, "This wasn't my plan… and I'm not planning on staying."

"You didn't plan it? Then how did you… Liam, what did you do?" Aenea said with a patronizing tone of voice.

"A little experiment I did a long time ago that ended perfectly by the way… at least that is 'till I ended up here," Liam concluded with a hint of disappointment.

"He does look differently, doesn't he?" Oma's voice reverberated in the void.

"Oh, hi Oma," Liam greeted his old friend.

"Yeah, he does look differently, but I can't get my hands on how exactly," Aenea replied to Oma's remark.

"What did he do this time?" Oma asked Aenea, both women forgetting Liam was even there.

"Another stupid experiment. One of these days he is going to really hurt himself."

"Well we knew that a long time ago, but maybe this time it's not a bad thing what he did," Oma said.

"What do you mean?" Aenea asked puzzled by her remark.

"Well, he ascended didn't he?"

"Oh that. Yeah, it would be a good thing if he already wasn't planning on going back," Aenea explained Liam's intentions.

"You mean… _if_ he can go back."

"What?"

"Well, he didn't end up here of his own volition," Oma explained the problem Liam was facing.

"That's true. He ascended regardless if he wanted it or not."

At that point Liam had enough of the two of them behaving like he wasn't even there, "Oh yeah, I remember now why I left. You two always ignoring me even when I was right in front of you," Liam said with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

Aenea turned toward Liam with a smile, "Sorry honey, but if what Oma is telling me is true, you are stuck here. You didn't choose to ascend so…"

Liam thought about it for a moment, "Crap!"

"Indeed," Oma stated simply.

"Well, I'm not ready to give up so easily," Liam replied before starting to concentrate. The process of descending without help wasn't the easiest thing to do, but he had done it once and he can do it again.

The two women carefully looked toward Liam who was trying to concentrate on a single point in the lower plane, more precisely, the lab he was in moments before and the place he wanted to go... NOW!

Liam disappeared from the higher plane of existence only to reappear the next second.

The two women were startled by this. The process of ascension and de-ascension wasn't an easy fit. He made it in less than a second. Another problem was that he was doing it again, and again, every time faster than the last one. He was determined, the two women had to admit that much. After a while more ascended beings started popping out apparently from nowhere, wanting to see what was the reason for all the commotion.

"Oh my!" Oma chuckled looking at what was probably the biggest yo-yo in the universe.

On the other hand, Aenea didn't feel like laughing. Watching her husband imitating a yo-yo between two planes of existence was becoming pretty embarrassing. If this continued for much longer, he would end up on the first page of the 'Ascended Times' with all the ascended beings laughing at him... and _her_.

"Oh this is so embarrassing. Is he going to stop this any time soon?" Aenea said, clearly fuming inside.

What happened next startled everyone present. Liam started to jump between planes faster and faster, almost becoming an unrecognizable blur even for them. The higher plane dimension started to crack and shudder everywhere, while something reassembling a swirling drain formed where Liam was connecting the two planes in one point. The tremor throughout the higher plane was intensifying and all present were starting to fear what the consequences of this could end up to be. Nobody ever witnessed something like this.

"What the fuck!" Oma yelled, her laughter completely gone.

"Does anybody know what is happening here?" Somebody else yelled back.

"Is he going to break our home?" Another voice echoed through the, by now, storm in front of them.

"Don't be stupid. You can't break apart an entire dimension. Can you?" a third voice asked.

"Does he even know what he is causing?"

Liam was so concentrated he didn't even register what was happening around him. His only thought was the point in space in the lower plane where he wanted to be. It looked so close, but at the same time unreachable. The only thing he knew was that he would _never _give up. Too much was invested to just return to the higher plane. He knew the others would never let him continue his work from up here and the thought of just leaving everything he had worked for behind was unbearable. He pushed even further concentrating as much as he could and then, everything stopped.

* * *

**Andromed Galaxy – Liam's Ship**

William didn't know what the hell that thing in front of him was. A mix of a dark storm with something blurry inside even his sensors or eyes couldn't recognize. He was starting to fear the ship would be torn apart. He'd already placed a force field around the lab, but the energy reading where so strange and unknown that he didn't know where to even begin to understand what was happening, much less how to protect the ship.

And then it suddenly stopped.

"I did it!" was the only thing Liam managed to say before droping to the floor unconscious.

William walked toward Liam, stopping a mere feet before him. His sensors were already telling him he was unconscious, but otherwise fine. William looked at the man lying on the floor with disapproving eyes.

"Idiot!" William grunted angrily before storming out of the lab and leaving Liam lying on the floor alone.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

The never-ending work continued as usual at the Terran Headquarter. Scientists were working relentlessly on new discoveries or on finding ways to improve old ones. Terrania was heaven for them. The system promoted such activities without the constant interference from those who wanted to maximize profits. The Terran Alliance wasn't about money and people didn't come here to make a quick buck. Of course, there was some kind of monetary system simply because it couldn't be any other way. People needed money not to spend here, but for when they would go somewhere else on Earth. The Terran Alliance was an Utopian system where everything was paid for by the constant influx of goods paid by the technologies they would sell on Earth, or deals they would make with other races around the galaxy. Terrania became a hub for everything they would acquire elsewhere and then sell on Earth as well as the other way around. Because of it, the financial situation of the Terran Alliance was better than ever. It wasn't too difficult to understand why. Having a monopoly on everything they would bring had assured a constant demand for newly acquired products. Probably, if the situation wasn't so unique, some antitrust committee would raise a few flags, but the fact was that no one gained anything in the Terran Alliance. The island didn't have corporations or private citizens that would capitalize on any of the numerous transactions or inventions. Instead, all money would go to the various branches on the island to research more, develop more or build more. So whoever wanted to come here didn't do it for the money, since in reality there wasn't any. In the beginning, there had been a few problems getting people to come here. When they would hear they wouldn't get paid the usual way as it was the case on the rest of the planet, they would lose interest in coming here. The fact that everything on the island was free didn't help at all. That was probably because some people didn't care so much about how much they had, but more about how much more than somebody else they had. To make an example it was like if somebody didn't care what car he drove as long as others drove something worse. There was some logic to that. Throughout human history there's always been rivalry, trying to show that you were better than others, and what better way to prove it than by having something those others didn't have.

Still, after some time, people started pouring in also understanding the benefits of such a system. There was no stress of proving yourself better than others, and there was no envy that could eventually grow in something worse. The life was in a way much simpler than on the rest of the planet. You did your job and you didn't have to worry if you'd have enough food on your plate, a roof over your head, or enough clothes to wear. Of course you couldn't buy a private jet, but, again, such people were not welcome here in the first place. All in all, everything was going smoothly on the relatively small, but very important island. The same thing could not be said for the rest of Earth.

The Terran Council was standing around the table, looking at the large display showing the latest news on the planet.

"…_The animosities between the countries who had signed the Terran Alliance pact and the rest of the world have reached a completely new level when China yesterday has accused those countries of deliberately trying to marginalize the rest of the world. China also stated that, even though they would never admit it, they don't want any more countries joining the alliance and that their reckless actions will eventually destabilize the global economy, or worse, lead to a global war. The President of the United Stated have responded to these accusations as to being ridiculous, reminding China that they had, and still have, the chance to join the Terran Alliance under the same rules the other countries have accepted before joining. The Presidents of other countries have released similar statements, accusing China of being the one responsible for the rising tensions in the world and the inevitable repercussions on the global market."_

"_In another news,_ _Oil has reached the lowest price in the last thirty years, mostly because of rumors stating the countries members of the Terran Alliance already hold technologies that will change the world. Plans to build fusion reactors and electric cars that can work for days without the need to recharge are only two of the many innovations that will make combustion engines and the use of chemical fuel obsolete in the years to come and…"_

"So, China is still pissed they didn't get control over the Stargate program," Jack stated simply.

"It appears that way, but that doesn't change the fact that the hostilities on the planet have increased greatly. My sources are telling me China is preparing for _any _eventuality," Klaus stated, letting them know that China is also making preparations in case of war.

"Why can't they just sign the damn papers and join the rest of the alliance?" Jack snapped angrily.

"If they sign now it would be an admission they were wrong all along and they will never do that. They can't now, it's too late." Klaus explained.

"Great, so what now?" Jack asked to no one in particular.

"That's not all. Russia is already preparing for the worst case and they have already asked the other countries to sign a defense agreement," Klaus said.

"And the other countries can't sign it because they fear it would push China over the edge," Jack said knowingly.

"Exactly. Such a pact would most definitely make China react and it could also make other countries think the accusations China has made about the Terran Alliance trying to marginalize the rest of the world were true."

"So the others won't sign it, but would they act if China decides to attack Russia?" Jack asked not certain if a signed defense agreement is even needed or just another piece of paper.

"Probably. They would be in an awkward position, but the alternative would be even worse. Besides, we all know that Russia is only the first of many targets China would attack. If it happens, it will be World War III with China, North Korea, and half of the Middle East, against the countries that signed the Terran Alliance pact."

"I know what our rulebook says, but where do we stand in all of this?" Jack asked not thinking about what a piece of paper says they could do, but rather what the real situation was.

"You are right, we are screwed there. Our _constitution_, if you want to call it that way, says we shouldn't interfere, but if it comes to that I don't know if we can just stand by and do nothing while our countries are at war. All people here are from those countries, us included."

"Great! We are screwed both ways. Can we do something to prevent it _before _it happens?"

Klaus thought about how to best answer Jack's question before replying, "In my many years I learned there is always a way, but there's also the chance we could worsen the current situation. If we are discovered doing anything we are not supposed to be doing, China could say that the alliance countries are purposely using our resources against them, and that wouldn't be a good thing. We would be in the crossfire, our own countries also asking why we are meddling in things that we shouldn't."

"So that's a no go on screwing up China. Let's then talk about something else because it's giving me a headache and we still can't do anything," Jack said wanting to change the subject.

Everybody in the room nodded, telling Jack they agree with him, "Alright. Klaus what is going on in the galaxy?"

Klaus frowned. He knew Jack was very well informed on what was going on, maybe even more than he was, so he knew the only reason why he asked him that question was because he didn't want to be the one to speak, "Well, after the Goa'uld attack almost a month ago we haven't heard anything from them. This time, it looks like they have disappeared for good. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing because I think we can all agree the Goa'uld are never going to give up. We can then assume this is only a period in which they are preparing some new plan on how to come back."

"Okay, what can we do?" Jack asked.

"Well I think we should use part of TIA's resources in trying to find them. I will need at least thirty percent of the TIA's resources to accomplish that."

"Do you think you can spare so many teams?" Jack asked.

"For now, yes, especially after the next batch of spyships is ready, I'll be able to dedicate one or two ships and several teams to that task. Everything else is tied down to other matters here and in the Pegasus Galaxy."

"Good. What else?" Jack asked eagerly.

"The Pegasus galaxy looks good. The Wraith are losing ground now that we have half a dozen ancient warships at our disposal."

"Yeah, I know, but we have a big problem there as well. The ships are emptying their drones every time they need to destroy a hive. We are barely making enough drones as it is. We won't be able to keep up like this for too long and we were planning to add drone launchers to our battlecruisers as well." Jack answered.

Sam understood this was a good time to say something since she was the Head of the R&D department, "We are preparing some designs we could use to put some energy weapons on the ancient warships. That way the ships won't need so many drones."

"Big guns?" Jack asked all exited.

"Very. We plan to use the designs of our ground cannons as basis. That way we will achieve two things. We will improve even further our ground cannons with some new breakthroughs we've made recently and at the same time we will upgrade the ancient warships to have energy weapons on them." Sam explained the twofold plan of research her department was already working on.

"I like it. When is it going to be ready?"

"The ground cannons designs will be done by next week and the ship's version of the same will be ready the week after that. How much time it will take us to install them depends of how much resources we are prepared to transfer from other projects, but if we give this the priority I think we could have everything ready in another two to three months tops," Sam answered.

"Great! Do it!" Jack quipped happily, the idea of more big honking cannons making his eyes sparkle.

The others in the room weren't too happy about Jack not even asking them if they wanted to divert other resources to this project, but they knew better than going against Jack and his fascination with big guns.

"There is one other thing that a few teams have found out and I would like to check it. There is some kind of priest going around the galaxy preaching about some new religion and I would like to see what is it all about, maybe even find that priest and ask him a few questions." Klaus said.

Daniel snapped from his half sleep looking at Klaus, "Don't tell me. The religion is Origin."

Klaus nodded, making both Jack and Daniel shrug. They looked at each other exchanging meaningful looks before Daniel said what both of them have dreaded for some time now, "They're here."

"Who's here?" Dmitri asked, not knowing to whom they were referring to.

"The Ori," Jack replied.

Klaus thought about it for a moment, "Ah yes; the distant race of ascended beings you mentioned a while back we should look for signs."

"If this priest is preaching Origin it means that they have somehow found a way to come here," Jack said thoughtfully. "Alright Klaus, check it out, but be careful. Apparently those guys like to kill everyone who doesn't want to join their little cult."

"I will, as always." Klaus replied.

The meeting continued for the next half an hour, with Jack completely shutting of once the topic switched to other departments. The only other thing he listened was the Colonization of Tollana that, after many delays, had finally started. Everything was going as planned, but Jack still feared it wasn't the right moment with everything that was going on in the galaxy to start colonizing other planets, as usually that time was the most vulnerable for the colonists. But the others thought they couldn't delay it anymore so the colonization process was in full swing and the planet already had a thousand colonists living there.

Jack listened when the conversation accidentally turned toward the FJN and any exchange in goods they could do with them. Jack had told the others what happened on Dakara, especially the part where Gerak accused him of being responsible for everything that happened and that he was working with the Goa'uld. The others paled when he told them of the accusations Gerak had made, immediately ready to make him pay for this and in a way they did. The council wanted to cut any ties with the FJN while Gerak was their leader and Jack had to work extra hard to dissuade them from doing it. He explained that, in the end, severing ties with the FJN would go in Gerak's favor, he being the one that wanted to sever ties with Earth all along. Instead he proposed the opposite. He told the others that if they wanted to make Gerak pay for what he did, they had to increase their trade and show even more good will with the Jaffa. As a result, they decided to increase the help they were already sending to them. They would also sell their products to them much cheaper. Of course this way they wouldn't make any profit from the trade, but this wouldn't last forever, just long enough to gain enough support from the Jaffa to make Gerak lose enough ground in the Council. Already the fact that Jack gave the captured Ha'taks to Teal'c and Bra'tac gave them more influence in the FJN. With all the help they would be sanding or trading below the valued price, it would soon make most of the Council turn pro-Earth, leaving Gerak marginalized and utterly alone in his crusade against them.

Daniel was startled when Jack proposed this plan to increase the aid to the FJN. He thought Jack would suggest they track down Gerak's ship and shoot him down. Instead, Jack came up with an incredible plan almost opposite to what Daniel though was Jack's character. Daniel always knew that Jack was smart, but he also believed Jack was the type of guy who shoots first and asks questions later. He didn't even understand how Jack managed to not shoot Gerak on Dakara when he accused him of doing those things. Daniel was beginning to believe that Jack was changing, and a lot. It was the same person as always, still liking big guns and jokes to release the tension in the room even when it wasn't appropriate, but there was also something else. Daniel was almost starting to believe that Jack was growing up. How that happened or when exactly, he didn't know.

* * *

**The Higher Plane **

It was crowded up here at the moment. So many ascended beings had gathered together to discuss recent events that nobody even remembered when the last time they did that had been. The entire plane was filled with them all looking toward the center were the Elders were standing. If it wasn't for the strange properties of this place, the people in the back would never hear what was being discussed, but as this was a dimension where spatial distances didn't mean the same thing as someone would think, they didn't have such problems. So, the ascended beings in the back could hear everything that's been said the same way as those in the front row. The problem was nobody was saying much. Most of them didn't know what to say simply because they didn't know what had happened, not exactly at least. They all agreed that Liam did something he shouldn't have, again, even though they didn't know what he did exactly.

The Elders in the center turned toward Aenea, their primary witness. She felt uncomfortable with so many eyes directed at here as if she had all the answers. She didn't have any.

One elder floated closer to here, "… and you said he looked different even before he attempted to return to the lower plane?"

"Yes, but… I can't explain it. I just knew something was different about him," Aenea answered with uncertainty in her voice.

The ascended being turned toward his fellow elder and they murmured something the others couldn't understand. He turned to face Aenea again, "Explain exactly what happened when he tried to return to the lower plane repeatedly,"

"Liam started bouncing between planes of existence at an incredible speed and, at first, nothing else happened, but then it was like he punched a hole in this dimension…

"You said he punched a hole? How did it look like?" another council member asked in the middle of Aenea's recounting.

"Well it looked like a drain, sucking up everything around it. I don't know how to better describe it. After a while it suddenly stopped, with Liam gone as well as the rapture."

The elder nodded knowingly as if he understood what happened.

Aenea saw that. "You know what happened?"

The elder spoke with his colleagues for a few moments, again, everybody else not understanding a word, before answering her question, "No."

That made Aenea flinch, _'Is he lying?' _Aenea didn't care, she only wanted to end this, "But now everything is alright again… as it was before."

The elder spoke with the others again, annoying Aenea and probably the rest of the ascended beings there even further, "No."

'_No?'_ Aenea thought. "What changed then… and don't ask the others," Aenea said before realizing she just ordered one of the elders. "Sorry!"

The elder smiled at her, apparently not being offended, "We cannot be certain if the change is the result of Liam's action, or it is because of the Ori's constantly increasing their influence in this region of space, but the future now looks… uncertain as never before," the elder said, but seeing how Aenea didn't understand it, he continued, "There are many more paths from this singular point in time that lead to the future than there were before, and our ability to understand which paths are the most probable has drastically decreased."

"That's not good," Aenea stated.

"Indeed."

Shortly after, the meeting ended, with everybody present returning to whatever they were doing before this entire ordeal happened. Aenea also went her own way, with the Andromeda galaxy being her next destination. She needed to have a few words with a certain person.

What the others didn't know was that the elders didn't leave. They remained, wanting to speak in private about what had happened.

"Why didn't you tell them that we know who's responsible for the changes?" one of the elders asked.

"Because she will go directly to him and tell him everything that we said," the one who spoke before replied.

"You are right. The least he knows the better," a third elder opined.

"Why didn't you tell them about the Omega Point?" the first one asked again.

"And what exactly should I have said? We don't know what it means? And again, she would have told him."

"You are right. The only thing we know is we will reach it much sooner."

"I hear the Ori are also concerned."

"And how do you know that?"

"I have my sources. It wasn't easy though."

"And what about them? Are we going to stand and watch, or are we going to interfere?"

"Nothing has changed in regard to the Ori. If they attack we will act, but we will not interfere with the lower plane."

"I concur. Nothing has changed."

Another elder who haven't spoken once since the beginning, decided it was time, "You are all forgetting something."

"No we are not. We have chosen not to speak about it. There is a difference."

"You cannot deny the resemblance with the prophecy," the same elder continued.

"Nobody believes in the prophecy except you."

"Maybe, but it is not our way to deny knowledge, no matter from where it came."

"You call that knowledge? There is no proof the prophecy is real."

"It is not the prophecy who needs to prove itself. It is _ours_ to prove it or disprove it. Instead, you are simply denying its existence, and that is wrong."

"Whatever."

"Enough! You two have been bickering with each other for the last eight million years. Don't you think is enough?"

"We do so because this is also a way to gain knowledge."

"Oh, shut up. No one wants to hear you pills of wisdom anymore."

"As you wish, but don't say I didn't warn you."

"I won't, you can be certain of that."

Their discussion continued for several more hours, or at least, that would be the human equivalent. In reality, time didn't pass at all. There was no time in the higher plane of existence, not in the same sense as in the lower plane. Everything was based on perception. Since ascended beings were made of pure energy, they didn't have the usual constraints of a physical body, or more importantly a physical brain. Mortal beings were limited by the flow of electrons between the neurons in the brain. This made people perceive motion at a certain pace. The thoughts of an ascended being could flow at unimaginable speed where he could watch the creation of a subatomic particle for hours, understanding the entire complexity of the processes involved, or he could spend the next ten years in a blink of an eye. Again, everything was based on perception and without a body the ascended beings could change at which rate to perceive reality. Also, without a body, they could move really fast.

Aenea just showed exactly how fast an ascended being can go if they were in a hurry. She crossed the void between the Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda in mere second. She needed to see Liam and see what the results of his stupid stunt were. Unfortunately, when she reached him, he was still unconscious, lying on the floor of the lab. Apparently William left him there probably as punishment for what he did. She decided to check the ship's logs to see what exactly Liam did before he ascended.

She didn't like what she had found, "Idiot!"

Apparently Aenea and William shared the same idea on how to best describe what Liam had done. She could not believe how reckless he'd been. Using the stasis pod to accelerate his evolution was one of the stupidest things he'd ever done, and he did a lot of stupid things in his long life. He knew about all the experiments the Lantean did in order to ascend and he also knew how many of them died trying. She didn't understand why he had risked so much. Fortunately, it looked that Liam was fine, or at least, that was what the ship's sensors were telling her. She didn't know if she should stay or go somewhere else and come back later. Then, she remembered that Oma wasn't at the meeting, which was strange since she knew firsthand what had happened. Aenea decided to find her friend and ask her if she knew anything more then what she did. The only problem was, she didn't know where Oma was at the moment and as they say, the universe is infinite, so…

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – P3X-674**

For Mitchell and his team it was business as usual. Travel through the gate, find any possible threat, and report back home what you'd found. The planet in question had been visited by a prior and they needed to question what the people knew about him, and also check out how many of the people there believed in the ferry tails the priest was spreading. While they were walking toward the small town a few miles from the gate, the discussion turned to what would they do if they saw a Prior.

"… so what, we shoot him?" Ford asked.

"Yes," Vala responded, clearly meaning what she said.

"We are not going to shoot anyone! That is, if he doesn't shoot at us first. We never shoot at people that don't shoot at us. That's how it's always been, and how it'll always be," Mitchell replied.

"You're saying that because you never met them, but I can assure you that when you see their charming personality, you'll change your mind," Vala replied, remembering the '_burned-on-the-stake_' experience she had, _twice_, in the Ori galaxy.

"Maybe, but for now, we are here to observe and learn, and nothing more," Mitchell replied while still walking toward the town that was by now already in sight.

They walked in silence for the next few hundred meters, the length that remained until they reached the town, before Peters decided to say something, "You do know we're being followed for the last mile or so?"

"Yes Peters, we know. Anyone has any idea who they are?" Mitchell replied still facing forward.

"I can't be sure, but one of them looks familiar. I must have met him before," Vala said.

"Ah well, if you met the guy, that means they are no good," Mitchell said.

"Why are you saying that? I met a lot of charming people in my time," Vala replied a little offended by Mitchell's insinuation.

"I bet."

"You are betting what exactly?" Vala asked with a smile on her face.

"Just a saying Vala, don't get your hopes up."

"Oh, that's disappointing," Vala replied. "So what are we going to do with them then?"

"For now, let's try to lose them in the crowd," Mitchell said and they all hastened their pace a little.

There were enough people there to lose the tail, but it wasn't going to be easy. The team looked so out of place with their uniforms that anybody that wasn't half blind could spot them from a hundred meters away. The team turned a corner making itself scarce. The three shady people that were following them turned the same corner into a small alley, but there was no sign of the team anywhere. They continued walking further down the road, entering into another passage they thought the team had taken. They didn't. The team was now behind them, slowly approaching the three guys unaware of what was going to happened.

The team reached them and with a clicking sound from their guns, they let the three guys know they had a lot of guns pointed at their backs, "So fellas, why are you following us?" Mitchell asked politely.

The three guys slowly turned with their hands in the air, with Peters already taking their holstered weapons, "We weren't following _you_, we were following _her_," one of the three men answered while pointing at Vala.

"Me? Why me?" Vala asked the same man.

"There is a bounty on your head. We thought you'd eventually split up for at least a few moments, so we could grab you and get a lot of money for it," the man explained reluctantly.

"Who put a bounty on me?" Vala asked again.

"The Lucian Alliance, for the money you owe them," the man answered.

"Vala, what is he talking about?" Mitchell asked.

"It's nothing, just a misunderstanding between me and my former employer," Vala responded as this explained everything.

"What kind of misunderstanding?"

"Let's just say that I did a tiny-teeny job for the Lucian Alliance and decided afterwards they were not the best buyer in town."

"So you took something from someone, then you screwed them up and sold whatever you stole to a third party keeping all the money."

"Well, almost dear. I did what you said, but then the buyer crossed me over, taking everything without paying me a dime. That bastard."

"Go figures. Apparently there is no honor among thieves. And now the Lucian Alliance wants something you don't even have," Mitchell surmised the entire deal.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Oh that's just great! You should feel really happy right now that I don't like the Lucian Alliance very much. Otherwise…"

One of the three men coughed at loud, making Mitchell and Vala turn, "What!"

"What are you going to do with us?" the same man asked. Apparently he was the leader of this bunch of wannabe criminals.

"We keep your weapons, you leave the planet, and we never see each other again, deal?" Mitchell explained very concisely.

"Deal," the man replied and the three of them ran away.

Mitchel looked back at Vala who was smiling while trying to look innocent. Mitchell thought she was trying to achieve the impossible, "Is there anything else I should know?"

"I swear that's all there is. That's been my last job."

"Well, maybe we should find those former associates and clear this whole thing up. I can't have a bounty on one of my teammates."

"Oh I wouldn't suggest that."

"And why is that?"

"Well, it's true I owe them some money, but on the other hand they really hate _you_. I mean, the Lucian Alliance hates the Terrans."

Mitchell thought about it for a moment, "So, no talking to them ha. What else can we do?"

Vala smiled the same way she always did when she wanted something from someone, "Well, if you could land me some weapons grade Naquadah I could repay them. Let's just say you take it from my next paycheck."

"Vala, you're not getting paid."

"I'm not?"

"No, you're not, but I'll see what I can do. In one way or the other we will solve this. Maybe Jack will decide to rather nuke them, since he doesn't like them very much either. On the other hand he also doesn't like you so…"

"He wouldn't leave me dry, would he?"

"I don't know. The old Jack would without thinking twice, but the new one, I don't know, maybe you are in luck."

Vala wasn't about to let luck decide her faith. If the current streak was any indication, luck hasn't been on her side for a very long time, "Can you ask Daniel instead? He likes me."

"He does? Since when?"

"That was hurtful, and I didn't deserve it."

"Whatever you say darling. Let's leave this discussion for… never, and focus on what we came here to do, shall we?"

The team returned to the reason they came on this planet in the first place. They asked several people what they thought about the Prior that came here and about the religion he was spreading. Most of them actually believed what the Prior was preaching, but a few looked more scared than anything else. It took some more convincing, but after a while one person was willing to recount his story as it really happened. As it turns out, he didn't believe in Origin, but he saw firsthand what happens to those who didn't. His wife had told the Prior she wasn't interested in anything he was selling. She was sick of people telling her what she should and shouldn't do and especially what she must believe in. The Prior said something like 'the unbelievers must be cleansed' or it was the something similar, the man wasn't sure, but that day his wife fell ill. She died two days later.

After that, the team found more evidence suggesting the same thing happened to others as well. They had also recounted the prior having strange powers and his staff would glow when he used them. They decided they heard enough and that it was time to return home.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

The team came through the Stargate when Jack and Daniel were just passing by in the gate room. Mitchell decided it was as good a time as any to tell them what they'd found. They weren't too pleased by what they heard, but it wasn't that much of a shock. They already knew with whom they were dealing with.

"Well, this confirms it. We can now say without any doubt they are hostile, and we should act accordingly," Jack said.

"Shoot first, ask questions later sir?" Mitchel asked what their orders were if they stumbled upon a prior while on a mission.

"Something like that. I have something special in mind for them," Jack answered with a slight grin on his face.

"There is another thing sir," Mitchell said while looking at Vala.

Jack saw how Mitchell looked at her and that made him think how nothing good could come next, "What is it?"

Mitchell explained what happened to them on the planet and the debt Vala had with the Lucian Alliance who in turn put a bounty on her head. Vala tried to look as innocent as possible, something Jack or anyone else there didn't believe in for one second. In the end Mitchell asked Jack what to do about it, should they pay her debt, or find some other way to solve this.

It took less than three second for Jack to find the answer, "Alright, we will pay them back what she owes."

Vala was about to protest, but then she realized that Jack actually accepted to pay her debt, which was strange and not only to Vala, but to the others as well.

Daniel looked at Jack not knowing what was going on. He gave his answer so fast that Daniel was sure it would be a resounding '_no_', "We will?"

Jack turned toward Daniel with an expression saying '_why do you ask?_' on his face, "Yes Daniel, we are. I also want somebody from that bunch of scientists we have here to put some undetectable tracking device on the Naquadah."

Daniel now realized what Jack wanted to do, "What kind of tracking device?"

Jack looked at Daniel a little pissed, "Daniel, that's why we have so many scientist running around and eating our food, so that I don't have to know what kind. Got it?"

"Alright, I'll tell Sam to come up with something," Daniel responded.

"Yes, and tell her to give the job to somebody else. Just make sure she doesn't do it herself. With all the extra work she has because of all the changes lately, she doesn't need more things to do," Jack explained.

Mitchell listened to the conversation intently, already thinking about Jack's real reason to give the Lucian Alliance the Naquadah, "So you want to find where the Lucian Alliance keeps their stash?"

"The Lucian Alliance has become a real pain in the ass lately. Several teams ran into them, almost always resulting in a firefight, and I think it's time we take a more proactive approach against them. If we can track the Naquadah from supplier to buyer, we can soon get a few good targets we can hit."

"Yeah, I heard one of the teams talking about running into them. The problem is that they always have at least one Al'kesh on the planet and our guys don't have anything with them that can shot down a ship of that size. And by the way, where do they get all that hardware? It's not that easy to come up with a ship like an Al'kesh and I'm more than sure they don't know how to build them or have the means like shipyards for that matter," Mitchell said.

"Well, maybe soon we'll have a chance to ask them. So, your next mission is to set up a meeting with them and pay what Vala owes them. I suggest you change your clothes before you do that. I don't think they like us very much and our uniforms are a dead giveaway."

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Atlantis**

The Ancient city of Atlantis floated in the small artificial pond surrounded by the rest of the massive Asuran city. Scorches of buildings on every side dwarfed the great city with their spiraling towers being even taller than the tallest building on Atlantis. There were so many buildings on the planet that the Terrans were barely able to check ten percent of the buildings and so far able to used less than one. Every day they brought more people from Earth, but to use the city to the fullest they would need hundreds of thousands of people and that was something they couldn't do. Another problem was that people that came here needed accommodations and the Asurans didn't have anything that would reassemble something that could fall into that category. The replicators simply didn't need sleep accommodations, kitchens, recreation areas or anything else humans needed in their everyday lives. Therefore, in order to bring more people, they needed to solve such problems beforehand by converting several buildings into living areas.

Fortunately there was a reword for all the trouble the Terrans had been going through. The city was a marvel of technology that the Terrans never believed they would see in their lifetime, much less own it. The Asuran, in their twisted way of imitating their creators, had built so many research labs and had worked on so many different experiments that in some ways they had even surpassed their creators as scientists. The automated manufacturing facilities were a godsend, especially since Atlantis lacked in such areas for who knows what reason. Those facilities could build practically anything you had blueprints for and enough material in your inventory. The biggest facilities on the planet were the three shipyards, capable of building ships as large as the Aurora. Currently one was dedicated for repairs and upgrades of already existing ships while the other two were building new ones. Inside those two shipyards, the automatic machines were working franticly on the outer frame of the new Terran battleships, the BB-305. The latest Terran ship was more than twice the size of its predecessor and much more deadly. They were planning to finish the first batch in the next six months or so. They didn't know exactly how much it would take since it was still a prototype and changes were very common in such cases. By now, the Terrans had a lot of experience, mostly thanks to the two previous models they'd built, but building a new ship was never an easy feat. It wasn't as easy as putting a few cannons on a frame and call it a spaceship, much less a warship. They needed to make extensive tests, checking power conduits if they could deliver the amount of power required by the new systems and also check if the new cannons wouldn't tare the ship apart when they fired. The counterforce those cannons produced was much greater than those on previous ships. Also, the hull armor was made with a new composite material that, on paper, showed much better results than the material the Daedalus was made of, but only extensive testing could tell if they missed something that could possibly result in the material behaving poorly under some unforeseen circumstances. Also a warship needed a lot of redundancy in his systems. If one system failed, something that often happened in battle, another system needed to take his place and keep the ship combat-capable. The primary power conduit was one of the most import systems on the ship. If he got damaged somehow, the entire ship could simply shut down and that would be catastrophic, especially if in battle at the time. Because of it, special forcefields were designed to protect it from being damaged and secondary conduits were placed to take its duty of fueling the ship with the massive amount of energy needed even when he was damaged or under extreme battle conditions. The N/N Mark IV reactors were also shielded with armored walls and a forcefield that could protect that section of the ships even when the shields and outer hull weren't enough. Usually a direct hit to any reactor would provoke secondary explosions that would destroy the entire ship.

The new ship was also much heavier than his predecessor and new engines had to be designed. Special care had to be taken into account when designing the inertial dampeners as well, those being responsible for lowering the ship's mass to more manageable levels while also keeping the crew from feeling the incredible acceleration spaceships have. If the inertial dampeners were off by even the slightest margin, the entire crew could end up plastered on walls with every bone in their body broken. Lastly, the entire computer core had to be reworked to keep up with the increased number of systems the new ship was going to have. All of this was very important to make a functioning ship work properly, but nothing compared to the care the engineers had to put into designing the support system dedicated for keeping the crew breathing and warm. When ships like this one would need to travel through the void between galaxies for weeks or even months at a time, a failure in the environmental system could mean the death of everybody onboard.

All that said, the people who worked on the ship's designs were confident they did a good job and that the ship, once finished, would work as advertised.

The people who inhabited Atlantis also had other problems on their minds, the shipyards and the rest of the Asuran complex being only one of them. They were now facing a new threat in the Pegasus galaxy that they were partially responsible for creating. The retrovirus doctor Beckett had designed in order to change the Wraith genetically was literally a fiasco of galactic proportions. Not only they didn't succeed in their plan, but they also created a monster that now plagued the galaxy. There was also the fact that the idea behind the whole thing was questionable from the very start, something that Jack told Weir when he last came to Atlantis. The idea was to change the Wraith so that they wouldn't need to feed on humans to survive. The idea in itself wasn't bad, if you didn't look at what the wraith did with other aliens in the Pegasus galaxy. Every alien race was destroyed or chased to the remote corners of the galaxy. That little piece of information made Jack think of what the repercussions would be if they indeed managed to change the Wraith eating habits. The wraith were dependent on humans to survive, not something that Jack liked in principle, but if they didn't need humans anymore, what would stop them from going on a rampage, killing every human in the entire galaxy. They wouldn't need them anymore and they already knew the Wraith didn't have any moral restraints with killing entire races. Jack also mentioned the fact that, if things stayed as they were, the human race would always have the last word, no matter how bad things looked at the moment. It was simple logic, the Wraith needing humans to survive and the humans not needing the Wraith at all.

That fact didn't comfort Weir too much and the fact that now there was a Wraith offshoot led by Michael that didn't need humans anymore made her mood fall to an all-time low. Even the fact that Michael and the Wraith were as much enemies as they were, couldn't cheer her up. His hybrids were not perfect, he still needed Teyla's child to complete the process, but the cockroach-like creatures the leading team had encountered were not something you would want to fight in a hand to hand combat. Lately, Michael succeeded in creating human hybrids he can control telepathically and none of them needed humans to survive. Michael was angry at the people of Atlantis for what they did to him. Nobody could blame him either. The retrovirus changed him in such a way that he was neither a wraith nor a human anymore and, as a result, he was banished from both races. He did the only thing he could. He started making his own race and in his eyes it was stronger and better than both. Jack tried to cheer her up by saying that not everything was for nothing and that they could maybe one day use the retrovirus as a biological weapon to kill the wraith. Then he remembered with who he was talking and decided it was time to go back to Earth. Weir was startled by what Jack had told her. Did they come that far that they could think about using biological weapons to commit genocide without remorse? The worst part was she thought it wasn't such a bad idea. For a long time she knew there could not be peace between humans and wraith, their eating habits representing the biggest obstacle no matter how much she wanted to find a peaceful solution. No matter what kind of weapon they would decide to use it would be to exterminate the wraith completely. When she took this job she didn't think she would have such a burden on her shoulder. She thought she would lead humanity to a new frontier, on a mission of exploration and not this. They'd already destroyed the Asurans who, replicators or not, where still sentient beings. Do they have the right to give the final judgment on who has the right to live and who doesn't based on how they came to be or how they are built? Apparently they did since nobody lost any sleep over what they did on this planet not long ago. She tried to comfort herself that they attacked them first and how _that_ was the reason why they retaliated, but what if the same situation happened, but with a different race, not one made with nanites but made of flesh and blood. Would they still go to such extremes to annihilate that race as well? No matter how she answered that question, it sounded wrong. If the answer was yes that would mean they were capable of committing genocide. If the answer was the opposite, they would be guilty of bigotry toward anyone who wasn't made of flesh and blood as they did.

Those were the thoughts that troubled Weir greatly these days, a few times, envying the mindset people like Jack and John had. She didn't thought they were bad people, far from it, she just believed they were trained to keep other people safe and knew in advance that sometimes you had to do things with dubious moral values to accomplish that. Weir on the other hand always tried to solve everything in a peaceful way with all sides satisfied with the ending as much as possible. Her job shielded her from ever even having to think about something morally dubious. Now, she didn't have such luxury. Now, she needed to decide what they were going to do with Michael and the new race he created, and she already hated the decision she'd made. Find them and kill them.

Things had changed since Earth went with full disclosure. Now they had enough force here in Pegasus to bring down any planet if they wanted to. They also had several black ops teams run by the TIA that were very proficient in espionage, sabotage or if needed, to make someone disappear. She knew once she gave the order a few teams would start searching for Michael in order to kill him the first chance they got. His followers would follow shortly after by a few special ops teams, mopping up the probably disoriented followers without their leader. Weir sighed, not liking the situation she was in, or better yet, the situation Jack put her into. Jack had the authority to give the order by himself, but he gave her the power to decide on how to proceed. She was pissed at him, but at the same time she also understood why he did it. He was testing her. If she wanted to lead the Pegasus expedition, by now nobody thinking about them as a simple expedition anymore, she needed to be able to make the difficult decisions.

John entered the balcony on which Weir spent the last hour or so, "So, did you decide?"

"Yes John, you can give the go ahead," Weir replied dryly.

"Finally."

"Hey, it wasn't an easy decision for me to make," Weir retorted a little pissed by John's attitude.

"Oh please 'lizbet, you knew what you were going to decide two hours ago, but since you didn't like what it was, you had to torture yourself for two more hours before giving the go ahead."

Weir thought again about the different mindset people like John had, fully knowing that what John was saying was the truth, but still being unable to do otherwise, "You are right John, I did decide a long time ago, but the day I start giving such orders without hesitation…"

"I know, I know, that's why you're in charge and not somebody like me," John replied knowing full well this wasn't an easy decision for her, which was a good thing for a leader.

"How's Rodney doing by the way," Weir said, wanting to change the subject.

"Rodney's being Rodney as usual. He's constantly trying to micromanage the entire R&D department while drinking at least ten cups of coffee each day. Doctor Geller says if he continues like this he'll get himself a coronary, but you know Rodney, he being stubborn and all."

"Yes I know. Tell him that if he doesn't slow down, we'll have to put Zelenka in charge. That should give him something to think about."

"Are you kidding? He will rather resign than take orders from Zelenka."

"I know, that's why it's going to be an effective deterrent. What's going on in your department by the way?"

"Ah, I have so many teams around the Pegasus galaxy that I can barely track them all down. I don't have a lot of time going around the galaxy these days though and a miss it. Some teams report problems, with the locals being hostile toward us."

"Hostile? For what reason?"

"No reason in particular, except maybe somebody is spreading ill-words about us, telling them we are responsible for awakening the Wraith and since we are not from this galaxy we shouldn't be here in the first place, and much less in Atlantis."

"Do we know who's responsible for spreading those rumors?"

"No we don't, but I can bet the Genii have something to do with it."

"Why you say that?"

"Well, who else can it be?"

"That's not proof John."

"I know it's not proof and I don't have anything concrete, but they are the only one with whom we have a beef with, and you know how they feel they should be the ones leading."

"Alright, let's say they are responsible for this. Are they something we should categorize as a threat?"

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Not in a way that we should worry about them attacking us here, but they definitely could start ambushing our teams and, since we are not doing anything to stop these rumors, they could gain more supporters from other humans, which means less allies for us."

"Talk to Paul, the head of the TIA here, and ask him to put some resources in finding out exactly what is going on here, but don't make this a priority for him. The Wraith and Michael have the priority right now."

"Maybe I could tell my teams to ask a few questions around and see what they can find out. That way the TIA can spend their time for more important things."

"If you think your teams can find something that way, go for it."

"And what if they find the Genii are responsible?"

"Let's not think about that just yet. First we make sure and then, if it turns out they are the one doing this, we'll have a meeting with them and explain politely that we don't like what they are doing," Weir said, letting John know that the meeting wouldn't be a very pleasant one .

"Okay, I'll do that. Is there anything else or…"

"No, that's all."

John nodded before leaving Weir alone on the balcony. She couldn't complain how things were going around here lately. They were making great strides recently and they could finally say they were safe. With a fleet in orbit and ground cannons having been placed all around the complex, they could really say they are protected now. Even the Wraith should think twice before coming here even if they knew where they were, which they didn't. And with the Wraith fighting among themselves they didn't have the strength to pose a serious threat. Elizabeth only hoped it would last.

* * *

**Andromeda galaxy – Liam's ship**

Liam had finally woken up. It had taken him two days to regain consciousness, the entire time having been spent on the floor of his lab. Apparently William was still pissed at him and not interested in speaking with him at all. Liam didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. It was at least peaceful. He enjoyed the quiet, especially immediately after he'd woken up. His head had felt at least three sizes too big, threatening to explode with every sound no matter how faint it had been. After a few hours, things had started looking a little better with his head feeling only twice the usual size.

He didn't know what had happened to him, not exactly anyway. He remembered having ascended and subsequently having descended back to the lower plane, but everything else was a blur. William, in the few words that he said to him before scurrying somewhere else, explained how he'd almost torn the ship apart. Since William didn't go into details before leaving, Liam didn't know what he meant exactly, but he had other things to worry about. There was more important work waiting and he was already late to meet with Thor in the Ida galaxy. He also needed to check all the various reports that had poured in while he'd been unconscious. There weren't many, but still a few of those reports had raised red flags in Liam's head. One report from the Intelligence Agency stated that Earth was having internal problems that could escalate into something more if things didn't change somehow. The problems were the countries that didn't join the Terran Alliance Pact. China, North Korea and the Middle East were those leading the disgruntled countries. They didn't want to join, but they also didn't like how things were looking for them. He didn't know what he could do about it, it was beyond his sphere of influence after all, but maybe he could talk to O'Neill and see what they are planning to do about it, if anything. Another report showed the Guardians, after the initial few successful missions against the Senari, had hit a wall. The Senari ships had made themselves scarce and the Guardians were having trouble tracking them down, especially if they followed Liam's orders to not split the fleet. Liam didn't like the idea of splitting the fleet into smaller groups. It would make them vulnerable in case the Senari would decide to combine theirs into larger groups and ambush them.

Other reports showed that things in the other two galaxies were quiet right now, which made Liam decide to order the cruisers from those two galaxies to travel to the Andromeda. That way he would be confident enough he can split the fleet in two or maybe even three battlegroups without jeopardizing their safety and effectiveness. The destroyers and corvettes he had in those galaxies would stay there, not being able to travel between galaxies anyway. With the Terrans having ten aurora class warships, Liam thought it would be more than enough to keep the Wraith busy for now.

The comm. system informed Liam that Thor was on the line. He opened a channel to Thor's ship and after a short conversation he beamed over. Thor wanted to talk to Liam for some reason, and Liam was curious to find out what it was.

"Thor, it is good to see you," Liam greeted his friend.

"Likewise Liam," Thor replied, but stopped for a second looking intently at Liam.

Liam noticed the scrutinizing look Thor gave him, but he didn't give it too much thought, "You said there was an urgent matter you wanted to discuss with me."

Thor composed himself after hearing Liam's words. "Yes, after the successful mission we had in the Pegasus galaxy that have ridden us of all the replicators, the Asgard High Council had a meeting discussing the future of my race."

Liam watched as Thor stopped talking, once again scrutinizing him. It made him feel a little uncomfortable, "And what kind of decision did the council reach?"

"Now, thanks to you, the Asgard race does not fear extinction anymore and we can finally look to the future with hope. A formal alliance between us is something the Council would be greatly interested," Thor said, still not being able to stop from looking at Liam.

"That is great news, but you know that I am currently at war with several races and I fear more will come in a short time," Liam said, still not understanding Thor's fascination with him. Did he forget to put his pants on before coming here?

"We understand, and we are also prepared to support you in any way we can. Once we formalize our Alliance, an enemy of yours is also an enemy of the Asgard," Thor said, blinking twice in quick succession, which was strange for an Asgard.

Liam had enough of this, "Thor… Why are you staring at me?"

Thor thought about how to answer best to Liam's question. "You are glowing."

"I'm what?"

Maybe he didn't understand, so Thor decided to be more precise, "You are emitting a light aura around you, and frankly it is a little perplexing."

Liam looked at himself still not seeing anything, "What are you talking about? I can't see anything."

"The Asgard can see a much larger spectrum of frequencies than humans or Alterrans can. The aura you are emitting is beyond your visible spectrum," Thor explained.

"Oh, I didn't know that," Liam answered not knowing exactly what to say.

"That still does not explain why you are glowing," Thor stated, waiting for Liam to answer him why.

Liam shrugged, "I don't know exactly. A few days ago I ascended and then came back. William says there has been a problem when I tried to return to this plane of existence. I don't remember much about what happened."

"I see. Maybe it is an aftereffect of the entire process involved during ascension. I am not an expert on the subject."

"Maybe, I don't know."

"Why did you ascend in the first place?" Thor asked.

"It wasn't intentional… I was making an experiment and it just happened, "Liam said awkwardly, not really wanting to explain to Thor what the experiment was.

"I see. I will not ask you what the experiment was. I sense you do not want to talk about it."

'_The little gray alien can be really perceptive at times,'_ Liam observed, "No, not really."

"Then we will leave this discussion for when you do," Thor stated simply.

"Thanks. On the matter we were discussing earlier, what do you think about making an alliance with the Terrans as well?" Liam asked while looking at his hands, still trying to see the glow Thor was talking about.

"The Council anticipated your wish to involve the humans from Earth and they are prepared to agree to such alliance."

"Well then, I think our next destination should be Earth."

"Indeed. What about the Nox?"

"I spoke with Lya about this and they are also interested, but as you know they are against any kind of violence, which means they won't help us in that department. But for everything else, they are looking forward to something similar to the old Alliance being reformed."

Thor nodded, already knowing where the Nox stand, "Then we should leave for Earth."

They both agreed and Liam beamed back to his ship shortly after, instructing William to leave for Earth. After a moment of hesitation he decided he had to ask.

"William."

"Yes."

"Are you seeing anything different in me, because Thor said…"

"I do."

"You do? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I'm still angry at you and because I don't know what it is. My internal sensors are having trouble understanding it. The same thing, but in a much greater degree, was registered by my sensors when you descended. The only thing I can tell you is that such energy readings shouldn't exist, not in this dimension anyway."

"But maybe in the higher plane they do."

"It's possible, but I can't think of a way to find out if that is the case."

Both remained thoughtful, thinking of what it could be. Liam wasn't worried much though. He felt great and he was more than sure it was probably something related to the descending process and that eventually it would fade out. For now, there were other things that needed to be done, and he was looking forward to what the Terran would say to a proposition of an alliance.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – P3X-674**

Two men were lying on the ground surrounded by bushes and covered by foliage over their entire bodies. They were clearly trying to conceal themselves. The small hill on which the two men were was only half a mile from the small opening where the gate was located. One of them was looking through his binocular at the gate while the other had his sniper rifle placed on the ground on his standard bipod. The M107 Sniper rifle was an impressive weapon with an effective range of more than a mile, while firing a .50 caliber bullet at the impressive speed of 850 meters per second. It wasn't difficult to understand they were waiting for somebody to show up.

"Do you think we are going to hell for this? I mean, we are talking about a priest of some kind don't we?" the man with the sniper asked.

"It will be hell if we come back home without completing our mission, that's for sure," the other man replied.

"That's true."

"Besides, from what I hear, those guys _are_ from hell. Join our religion or die, really nice fellas. I'm telling you, I'm not against any religion and all that crap, but those guys give a whole new meaning to the term preaching."

"Yeah, I heard about the people that didn't want to join. Poor bastards."

"This prior is going to be the poor bastard very soon. I just hope he'll show up any time soon. We've been standing here for twelve hours and I have to pee."

"Oh, I think you can take a break for a few minutes. What are the chances of him showing up right now?"

"You're right," the man with the binocular said. He got up at the same moment as he heard the gate starting to spin. "If I knew he'll come when I wanted to take a leak, I would have gone hours ago."

"Don't get your hopes up, we still don't know who it is," the man with the sniper replied, already preparing himself to take the shot.

The gate turned the usual seven times before opening the wormhole. It was him after all. The prior walked through the gate with his staff in one hand and a book in the other. Not the usual target the two men were used to, but their target nevertheless. The Prior moved down the road toward the small town when the soldier fired from his rifle. The bullet traveled to his intended destination faster than the speed of sound, nobody on his path being capable of even hearing it before it hit. The Prior's chest exploded from the impact before he could even register what happened to him. He slumped to the ground dead.

"Well, the anti-prior weapon works apparently."

"Yeah, it seems they are not capable of stopping bullets fired from half a mile away that they can't even hear. I think we are done here. Let's grab that stick he carries around and head home."

"Yeah, the boss will be happy to hear we can kill them this way."

With their job done, the two soldiers headed down the hill stopping only for a moment to take the prior's staff before gating back to Earth.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

Jack was sitting on a table in the mess hall. He was now ready to finish his meal with a nice piece of apple-pie, his favorite part of the meal. He was about to take the first bite when a beam of light transported him away. Daniel, on the other side of the table, looked stunned for a moment, just before taking Jack's pie for himself. It was a really good pie.

Jack reappeared on the bridge of Liam's ship with his fork still in his hand, Thor and Liam looking at him intently, "Oh come on! I can't even finish launch in peace?"

Liam wanted to say something when his stomach protested, in turn making him think about when was the last time he had eaten. He knew it wasn't today and he'd been unconscious the two days before that, "Now that you mention it, I can't remember when was the last time I ate."

Thor on the other hand looked at the two of them shaking his head in clear disappointment. They were here to discuss probably one of the most important things that would change several galaxies and they were preoccupied with food, "O'Neill, we apologize for the interruption, but we have something important to discuss with you."

Jack looked at Thor intently. He wanted to mention to him that every time somebody wanted something from him it was always _very_ _important_, making the words 'very' and 'important' completely lose their meaning, but he decided to let it slide, "Alright, I'm all ears."

Seeing that Thor was waiting for him to continue the conversation, Liam stopped thinking about his stomach, "In short, we are here to propose an alliance between our races."

"Finally! It took you long enough," Jack replied with an annoyed look.

Liam was a little startled by his reaction. Did he become so transparent that everybody knew what he was planning? "Good. Can I assume from your response you're open to it?"

"We are interested, I mean, I'll still need to talk to the council, but I think they will agree with me on this one." Jack answered with a slight smile.

"Good-good, but before we go any further you should know a few more things. First of all you should know that we are trying to build the successor of the First Great Alliance, an alliance that lasted for millions of years. There are rules that we instated in that alliance that served as well through all that time. Those rules are many and I'll give you a copy of them to study, but there are a few that you should know right now. Once the alliance is signed, from that moment on, we are obligated to help each other if one of us is threatened and if he asks for help. There are also limitations to what you can and cannot do in regard to other races. For instance you cannot declare war to another race without telling us first and even then, the alliance as a whole must first try to find a peaceful solution to the problem. Only when the alliance is certain there is no other way to solve the dispute, you are allowed to declare war and, if needed, to ask help from the other races in the alliance. In that context I must inform you that the Edenians and the Order are currently at war in the Andromeda galaxy with a race we know very little of, except that they call themselves the Senari. I'll give you more data if you want later."

"It sounds reasonable enough, the alliance would be perceived as one, so it stands to logic that no one can go around declaring war by himself."

"I'm glad you understand. There is also the question of making alliances with other races. Maybe you'll one day want to formalize your friendships with the Langarans or other humans in the galaxy. You are free to do so, but they would not be part of our alliance, and there cannot be conflicting rules between the two alliances. Our alliance must in any case supersede any other. You should pay great attention to this point because it is a difficult one."

"I think I got it."

"So for example let's say the Langarans are your new allies and they are attacked by an unknown race and, of course, they are asking for your help. What do you do?"

"I go there and blast those aliens to pieces with everything I've got."

"Somehow I thought you would say that, but no, that's not the correct answer."

"Why not?"

"I told you, it's because our alliance always supersedes any other, and you cannot go to war without telling us first."

"Oh, yeah… now I get it, but isn't that a little too complicated and… slow. I mean, they ask me for help than I have to ask you for help, then we try to find a peaceful solution, and in the meantime the Langarans get slaughtered."

"Well, sometimes it does take longer than it strictly needs to be, but there are also exceptions to the rule. In the case you described, you are allowed to bring a defensive force that will inform the aggressor the Langarans are under your protection, and you can retaliate if they decide to attack anyway, but you must still notify the rest of the alliance as soon as possible."

"Alright, that sounds better, but I still think my first suggestion was _much_ faster and more…" Jack stopped when he saw Thor and Liam's expression.

"Let's move on. The alliance also doesn't allow making alliances with races that are below a certain social level. This rule is to safeguard those races from being exploited or from receiving technologies that are beyond their current understanding. Things like that could destabilize their entire society. You can make treaties with them for the exchange of goods, but even in that case, they should be revised by all members of the alliance to see if that race is treated fairly. And last, I intend to ask the Nox to join the alliance as well, but because they do not believe in violence, they have a special status in which they are not obligated to give any military support even in case of war."

"I knew that about the Nox already, and I have no problem with that. I presume all races are equal in the Alliance?" Jack said, continuing after seeing the two of them nodding, "Is there some other obligations or rules like with sharing technology, information and things like that?"

"No, in principle nobody is obligated or restricted to give anything in that regard, but we usually encourage the sharing of information. When advanced technology is involved the thing gets a little trickier. As a rule we don't have any restrictions in giving anything, but if some technology is given to you by another race, that race holds the rights to share it with others and not you. This means that you cannot give away the technology that has been given to you or anything else you might develop based on that tech."

"So, if I understand what you are saying is, for example, we can't give the Asgard shields or anything we derive from them to anybody else without the Asgard approval. Is that correct?"

"Yes, we used the same rules as the First Great Alliance had done a long time ago." Thor answered that question.

"Alright, I think I got the gist of it."

"Almost, you are forgetting about my people's toys."

"What toys?"

"Well, in short, everything else you have."

"Wait, you mean all of the stuff we have here and in the Pegasus galaxy?"

"Yes, those and anything you develop through the use of our database in Atlantis."

"Well, that sounds like a screwed up deal. No offense."

"None taken and you shouldn't worry too much about it either. I have no problem you using and learning from us, but sharing or selling it to others is out of the question, especially the dangerous staff. We will make a list of various techs and knowledge you are not allowed to share with anyone."

"Alright, we didn't intend to give away anything to anyone in the first place, so I don't think it is going to be a problem."

"There is another point, and a very important one. We are making an alliance with the Terrans and not Earth. Do you understand the distinction?"

"Well, that's the reason you gave me that proposal in the first place wasn't it?"

"It was. I could not have made an alliance with a planet that has so many countries and governments. I needed one entity with whom to make the alliance."

"I get that, so when do we sign."

"Oh the process shouldn't take longer than six months or maybe a year."

"That long?"

"What I told you here is only a few things that should give you an idea of what our alliance will look like, but we will have to go through a lot more rules and regulations that we all must be satisfied with. I think that part should rather be done by Daniel."

"Oh yes, Daniel is definitely your man. He will actually like doing it."

"Good. We also need to rebuild a neutral place where the four races will meet on a regular basis."

"Like on Tantalus you mean?"

"Yes, maybe we can even rebuild it there. So, do you think you can keep the distance from the rest of your world?"

"I don't think there'll be a problem there, at least not on our side. The governments on the planet might have something to say about all of this though."

"That is what I was afraid of. I've been monitoring the situation on Earth and I don't like what is happening down there."

"I don't like it either, but there isn't much I can do about it. We are completely cut off from everything that is related to the planet's internal affairs. Even if things escalate even further or worse, if it comes to war, we are not supposed to intervene."

"Yes, and I noticed you used the word _supposed_, which means that you probably will if it comes to that."

"Well, no matter how much we pretend to be separated from the rest of the world, I don't think that people on Terrania would like it too much if we just stand and do nothing while our countries and families are at war."

"I understand, but I would like you to promise me that if something does happen you will call us. I don't know if we will be able to help, but I would at least like to try."

"You got it. Is there anything else we should discuss or can I go back to finish my pie?"

"No, that's all for now. Take this crystal to Daniel. Here is everything he'll want to know about the alliance."

"Oh he'll be so happy." Jack said, this time not trying to be ironic.

The three of them said their goodbyes and Jack was beamed back in the mess hall. Of course there was no pie there waiting for him and he also noticed the kitchen was closed by now. He scurried outside the mass hall in search for Daniel. If anybody could be happy about reading what will probably be thousands of pages of rules and regulations, that was Daniel, and Jack was glad to pass on to him this task.

* * *

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	7. Chapter 7: Countermeasures

**Author's notes: Here it comes the next chapter in the story. Before starting to read, find a comfortable place with lots of drinks and snacks because this is a long one. Enjoy!**

* * *

Six months had passed since the initial talks about the formation of the Second Great Alliance and with the signing only a few months away, they had a lot of work to do. In future history books, when many facts will be lost in translation, they will talk about the Second Great Alliance as having been formed because of the many enemies that were threatening to destroy them all. It wasn't true though. The alliance was being formed regardless of the trouble their members were facing at the moment, which were many.

The Milky Way galaxy was in disarray, mostly because of the priors running around and converting people to their religion. The anti-prior weapon in the form of a M107 sniper rifle worked like a charm, although it didn't make much of a difference. The priors were still coming more than ever and it looked as if for every prior they killed, there was two more coming from the Ori galaxy. The Ori apparently had an unlimited supply of them. The conversion into a prior was easy enough so they could go and send new ones whenever they needed. They also became smarter. Now there were soldiers coming through the gate as well, canvasing the area in advance and making sure there was no threat. Sometimes, the black op teams had to retreat in order to not being discovered. Other times they would still manage to hit their target, but there was no retreating with these guys. And why would it be. The priors didn't fear them simply because they expected their reword once they died in the form of ascension, completely oblivious it was all a lie.

A prior had also tried to build some kind of supergate by converting a planet into a small black hole. Thankfully, he failed due to Vala's selfless act that had cost her_ her_ life. Or at least, that was what everybody believed at the moment. They didn't know Vala actually ended up in the Ori galaxy when the gate had blown up.

The Lucian Alliance was in full swing, with their piracy act and the selling of a drug called Kassa. It was some kind of genetically modified corn from hell with very addictive properties and the Terrans were adamant in stopping the spreading of such substance. Jack's plan to track down Vala's payment in the form of weapons grade Naquadah had worked and they had been able to truck down several warehouses the Lucian Alliance had. They repeated the process several times, that way also finding out about the drug the Lucian Alliance was selling, but eventually the Lucian Alliance understood the Terran had a way of tracking them down and they had begun setting up ambushes and compartmentalizing their organization even further. Something the Terrans believed it would be only a minor nuisance became a criminal organization of galactic proportions. The worst part was that there were Jaffas, unhappy with how things were going with the FJN, joining the criminal organization and giving their services as mercenaries for money. It was also apparent that somebody was helping them build ships, weapons and other assets, but for now the Terrans didn't know how or who was helping them. There were only a few suspects on the list that could do something of such magnitude. The Goa'uld and the FJN were the only races who had the necessary knowledge and infrastructure to build an Al'kesh or Ha'tak. Still, nobody knew who it was and pointing fingers without proof wasn't a smart thing to do, especially since relations with the FJN were steadily improving as of late.

After the incredible fiasco that had almost cost the FJN their capital planet Dakara and the possible death of all humans in the galaxy at the hand of Anubis, Gerak had lost most of the support in the council. The accusations toward Jack and the Terrans in general after he'd saved Dakara again made him look like an obtuse old fart in the eyes of his fellow council members and even those who were still on his side understood that he wasn't made for politics. In many situations wars would start because of something somebody said at the wrong moment and the Jaffa council realized that a politician must above all be a good diplomat when dealing with other races. Something Gerak was lacking.

Jack's plan to increase help toward the FJN instead of retaliating had paid off. The Jaffa Council was now seeing a friend in Jack and the Terrans more than ever. After the Council had seen the power the Terrans wielded, with the two auroras having no problem disposing of Baal's fleet, they started to fear Gerak's word could provoke them to take action against them. After all, that was what the Jaffa would have done if the roles were reversed. Instead, the Terrans increased their effort in aiding the FJN rebuild into a modern society. Gerak on the other hand was so enraged that the others feared his head would explode, but Gerak also understood one other thing. He had greatly underestimated the Tau'ri, not only as a military power that could crash them with ease, but also how much more experience they have in dealing with other races. He then understood that Earth, having spent centuries constantly battling among the various countries, made them expert diplomats who knew how to exploit every situation to their advantage. He understood how stupid he had been when he confronted Jack so openly. The Terrans were using that incident to their advantage furthering their agenda even more. He still believed the Jaffa were born to lead the galaxy and not some charity case that needed help from the Tau'ri, but he now also knew to never underestimate them again.

Earth still had his own problems back home. China and other countries still refused to join the Terran Alliance, which act would finally unite the planet. Instead, they'd decided to start their own space program. At least, that was what the TIA had discovered, even though the entire program was supposed to be a secret. They didn't have the technology the Terrans had, but they still had a lot of data from the time the Stargate program was a secret and at the time the IOA had access to it. China was a member then, and the TIA believed they had enough to start building ships that could leave the Solar System. One of the many technologies that the SGC reverse engineered was the hyperdrive of a Tel'tak and with that knowledge and a little effort, the Chinese could start making ships capable of interstellar travel. The worst part was that nobody had the authority to do anything about it. There was no reason why they shouldn't start their own space program since they didn't join the Terran Alliance. The countries that joined the treaty had signed they would leave that job to the newly formed organization, the price of running such a program being prohibitory anyway, but China and probably a few other countries had decided they would do it anyway. The greatest fear was what would happen if they took another gate from a planet and brought it back to Earth. In the past it had been proven that two gates could work in some cases, but not at the same time and since the Terrans didn't have a DHD, it could happen that the other gate would become the primary gate on the planet. The countries that _did_ sign the treaty were also aware of that and they were not too happy. Another problem was how the rest of the galaxy would perceive the Chinese. Would they be perceived as a distinct race or as an integral part of Earth, with repercussions for the Terran Alliance? Also what would happen if they decided to allow others to come to Earth through the gate or by ship? Legally the Terran Alliance didn't have the authority to stop them from doing it, but many governments were asking Jack many what ifs and he didn't know how to answer to them. He could stop them, there was no question if he could, but they knew what China's answer would be to that. The US and Russia were already talking about sabotaging China's space program with any means necessary, but again, the repercussion could be severe, possibly even such to lead to war.

To make things worse the Milky Way galaxy, with all her problems, wasn't the worst of what was happening in the universe. The Pegasus galaxy had problems of its own, namely the Wraith finally understanding that the new race that came to their galaxy would not be so easily crashed. Because of it, they had united once more, the same way they had been united ten thousand years ago. Finally united, the Wraith had the ability to bring their entire attention toward the Terrans. In the last seven months the Terrans had ambushed many Wraith ships and even more strongholds on planets the Wraith once had control over. With the help of Liam and, by uniting their intel, they had much better coordination of their forces and they were doing a great job of disposing of any stranded Wraith ship who should have stayed with the rest of their fleet. Now, things were different. The wraith was putting more ships to protect their assets, making it more difficult to ambush them in what usually had been an unfair fight with many Terran ships against a couple of cruisers or a hive without additional support. Also, their planets were now protected with scores of troops and at least a few ships in orbit constantly watching.

Michael was also still alive despite the effort the Terrans had put into finding him. They'd managed to destroy several of his labs, but he was more like a ghost than anything else. He was probably spending most of his time aboard his ship, hiding in hyperspace or deep into the void of space. He must have understood that he can't win against both the Wraith and the Terrans so he must have decided to lay low for the time being and build his strength, something neither the Terrans nor the Wraith liked. He was too much of an unknown factor to leave him be. Recently the Terrans had lost one of the auroras when they got a tip where Michael's ship was and instead they'd found a Wraith fleet waiting for them. The Wraith had lost two hives and several cruisers, but eventually the auroras shields gave out and the ship was destroyed with the entire crew onboard. This was the first significant loss for the Terrans and they were resolute they would make the Wraith pay for this. The intel came from Todd who, even though being a Wraith, had provided valuable information to the Terrans in the past. Now he was persona non grata even though he'd sworn he'd been set up. It didn't matter. The moment his intel became unreliable they didn't have any use for him anymore and he was also a Wraith so there wasn't too many reasons to believe him anyway.

The Guardians were doing their best, helping whenever possible, but their resources were limited. The reason was that Liam had to pull more and more asset to the Andromeda Galaxy where he was at war with the Senari. Six months ago, when Liam had decided it was time to take the fight back to them and before they could find the Edenian home planet, things had looked much better than they really were. After a few successful attacks the Senari became smarter, keeping more ships together and also making it more difficult to find them. Liam didn't want to split up his fleet in smaller battlegroups because he didn't like the idea of being ambushed back in the same way. The Senari had kept coming with more and more ships entering the Andromeda Galaxy through the strange anomaly that somehow allowed them to come here. There were at least two dozen ships at all times watching the wormhole and they were also building additional defense platforms there. It looked as if there was no end to the Senari, no matter how many ships they would destroy. Liam had already feared they would reach Eden Prime in which case he would be on the defensive.

The change came when he had asked the Asgard for help. A dozen O'Neill battlecruisers and several science vessels capable of canvasing a large area in search for enemy ships had quickly made the difference. Also Liam had increased the number of shipyards as much as he could and he now had more than fifty ships in the three galaxies. The Senari were no closer to the region of space Eden Prime was in than they were a few months ago. Not that Liam feared for the planet safety. Whoever tried to attack the planet would get a nasty surprise, but in war it was always better to have the enemy guessing from where the attack would come without worrying about a sudden attack at your own home planet. The same way the Second World War on Earth was won the moment the US joined the fight. The civilians and the entire war machine were safe at home while the war was raging everywhere else in the world. Being separated by the Atlantic Ocean gave a great advantage to the Americans. Of course, there was also the stupidity of Hitler when he had decided to attack the Russians on the opposite front and the stubbornness of the Brits that made him lose the war.

All in all, the Guardians, Asgard and Terrans were holding their own, apparently being more than capable of protecting their region of space from any intruder that threatened them, but there was a few things Jack didn't like and that would need to change. Because of it, he had called both Thor and Liam to come and see him so they could discuss a few things. He actually needed Liam more than he needed Thor, but he knew Thor sometimes could come up with ideas others couldn't and having on more head in the room couldn't hurt.

* * *

**Earth – Aboard Liam's Ship**

In a large conference room Liam, Thor, Jack, Sam and Daniel were sitting around a large table. The interior was strange. Somebody could have called it minimalistic, but Jack thought it was plain empty. Besides the large table in the middle, there was only one massive display covering the majority of the wall on the opposite side from where the entrance doors were. He didn't know that this was because the entire room could shift into a holographic projection and that everything inside would otherwise interfere with the hologram. Even the table could be lowered inside the floor, leaving the entire room empty.

Jack thought it was time to bring the reason why they were all here, "We have a problem. Well, we have many problems, but I think that together we can solve at least one."

Liam smiled. It was true. They had many problems. "So what is it?"

"Carter," Jack said while looking at her.

"The problem is the priors. No matter how many of them we kill, more show up the next day. It's a losing battle and only a matter of time before they get smarter if they haven't already. They have the ability to come here without any restrictions while we don't even know from where they are coming from and this needs to change," Carter explained.

"I suppose you didn't call me here so that we can find a way to go to the Ori galaxy because, I can tell you right now, it would be suicide," Liam asked.

"I have to agree. We are not prepared to take the fight to them. I am not certain we will ever be ready to attack them in their own galaxy," Thor stated.

"No, that is not what I'm asking. It's actually the opposite," Carter said, pausing for a moment. "We want to stop them from coming _here_, and we think it is possible, at least through the gate network anyway. Liam, we know that the Lanteans blocked the gate in Atlantis to all other gates except the one on Earth. Can we reprogram the gate network here to block any '_outside calls'_?"

Liam thought about it for a minute before answering, "I think it's possible. The DHD's were made in such a way that they can be programmed with whatever instructions you like, the ability to block certain addresses being one of them."

"So there is a way to start a correlate update that will instruct all the gates in the network to disregard all calls with more than seven symbol addresses?"

"Yes, that shouldn't be a problem, but I don't think this is going to solve the problem. Maybe it would if there were no priors already here," Liam explained.

"What has that to do with anything?" Jack asked.

"I think I know where he's going with this," Carter said after seeing Jack's puzzled look. "They can also reprogram the gate network to accept the address they want."

"Even worse than that. They don't even have to know how to program them because the DHDs have redundancy in their systems in case the wrong program is uploaded. There is a way to start something I would call a reset procedure that reverts the gate network to his default programming. They only need to know how to do that and the entire network will revert back, allowing any address to be accepted by the DHDs."

"That's not good," Jack said.

Carter was thoughtful for some reason. "Wait! That doesn't make any sense. If that is the case then what the Lanteans did before leaving Atlantis would have been meaningless. Anybody could restart the system and the protection they placed would have been for nothing."

"Ah yes, but you see, Atlantis has a different dialing crystal than the rest of the gate network. You can't reprogram that crystal with the standard update." Liam explained.

"So, there _is_ a way. Can you build new crystals in such a way that they can't be tampered with. Let's say they can't accept any address with more than seven symbols?" Carter asked.

"Yes I could develop such a crystal, but I also need to develop another one that is placed inside the gate itself. If we don't change that as well, they would only need to destroy the DHD or replace the crystal once more for the gate to accept any address."

"The gate can be opened?"

"No, not exactly. You need to use a special device that can transport the crystal already inside out and place another back at the same time. I'll give you the device you'll need to do it, but you must promise me to keep it safe. It's one of the ways my people kept the gate's inner workings a secret and also tamperproof. If not, every idiot could mess with it, with unpredictable and often terrible consequences. Legs instead of hands and things like that, not very pretty to see."

"So you will build the crystals?"

"Yes, but even you can build them in the Asuran city with the right blueprints, but we will need to place them manually on every gate in the galaxy for this to work and afterwards they will permanently be unable to receive dials from outside this galaxy."

"We have no problem with that. We won't change our gate so we can still contact Atlantis and that's the only gate we use to dial outside this galaxy. The only problem would be to find all the gates in the galaxy and replace the crystals on all of them manually. The problem is we probably don't have all the working gate addresses in the galaxy."

"Well, that's easy enough. Any DHD can send a trace subroutine through the correlated update and receive all gate addresses back."

"It does? We didn't know about that." Carter said a little frustrated that something like this was possible and she didn't know about it.

"It's another of the many secrets my race had never disclosed for security reasons," Liam nodded before continuing the conversation, "Give me a few days to come up with a foolproof control crystal and I'll give you the blueprints. We can split the job in half so we can finish faster."

"That would be great, thanks."

"Don't mention it. The only problem will be the planets with a hostile environment, but with a little more effort we can replace the crystals even on those."

"Why would we want to update those planets?" Jack asked

"Because we must update them all or we risk the priors being able to gate to those planets and gate somewhere else before the hostile environment kills them. They are a resilient bunch after all," Liam explained.

"Good point. We could send a ship and beam the DHD and stargate onboard or use hazmat suits to do it," Jack replied.

"I think we could update them all in a few months if we put all teams to work on it," Carter said.

"I think so, but what about hostile planets, and I'm not talking about the environment here," Jack said, letting them know he meant hostile races.

"You are right, that could be a problem." Carter said.

Liam looked at them not knowing why they were so worried, "What race could possibly be such a problem?"

Daniel, Carter and Jack turned to Liam with a face usually seen on people that just ate the most acrid fruit ever. They all answered at the same time, "The Aschen."

Liam went through his memories trying to find any reference about the Aschen. He found it, his face changing suddenly and not for the better, "Oh them, genocidal bastards that couldn't get a joke even if their lives depends on it."

"Yeah them, how are we going to update their home planet? As far as I know there are several billions psychopaths on that rock. How is it called their planet again, I can't remember?" Jack asked.

"Aschen." Daniel replied while looking at Jack, also trying to keep a straight face.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense." Jack replied sheepishly.

"I have no idea and I don't like the idea of somebody going there." Sam stated, also trying not to chuckle.

"Maybe we shouldn't. Imagine the headline: 'The Aschen meets the Ori'. Can you imagine a prior trying to sell them their religion? They would shoot him before he could say '_Hallowed are the Ori'_" Jack said.

"Yeah, well, imagine the Aschen somehow finding common ground and allying themselves with the Ori."

"You are right, it's difficult it would ever happen, but we still can't take that chance. So, any idea on how to solve this?" Jack asked again.

Liam had thought about it the entire time they were discussing it, "We go in with a cloaked ship, beam the gate aboard and change it there and then we beam it back. They don't have a DHD so we would have to work only on the gate."

"Do we have to beam it back?" Jack asked.

Liam thought about it for a moment. It wasn't a bad idea, but he thought stealth was more important, "Good point, but yes, we need to. We may be able to even do it without them noticing anything, and that is what we want the most right now. For now the Aschen are isolated from the rest of the galaxy and we don't want to change that while we have so many enemies already," Liam explained.

"We don't have a ship large enough to beam the gate that can also cloak, so…"

"It's not a problem, I'll do it."

The meeting lasted only ten more minutes. They mentioned a few more planets that could be hostile towards them, but not one could pose a threat such as the Aschen planet could. Daniel also asked Liam and Thor a battery of questions about the alliance they were in the process of creating, the questions making Jack wanting to shoot himself, or better yet shoot Daniel after thinking about it a little more. Liam and Thor remained on Liam's ship a little longer, discussing the various strategies they would use in order to squeeze the Senari even more than they already had. All their thinking came back to the fact that, sooner or later, they would need to attack them in front of the wormhole where they have their main fleet elements. Liam and Thor weren't in accord on that point. Liam thought it was too risky, not because there was too many of them there, but because he feared they were waiting for them with a much larger fleet on the other side of the wormhole, ready to enter the fray once they attacked. Thor knew it was a possibility and that the relatively small fleet waiting there could actually be there as bait, but he also knew they would eventually have to do it no matter what. As long as the wormhole stayed open, they couldn't stop the Senari from coming here. Liam decided they needed to build a few defensive platforms first so that, once they attacked, they could place them there permanently and block anything from coming through the wormhole without having to repurpose too many ships for the same task. Thor approved, deciding they would both build the platforms so that in three months they could be ready to finally act and end the war in the Andromeda galaxy once and for all.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

Klaus literally assaulted the three council members immediately after they beamed back, dragging them in his office as fast as they let him and without answering to any of the many questions they were asking while being dragged to his office. Once they entered his office, he closed the door and activated some strange device on his desk. Jack thought it must be something the TIA developed to block any listening devices in the room.

"It leaked," Klaus said.

"What leaked?" Jack asked more than certain Klaus wasn't talking about some pipe.

"Everything. What we are doing in the Pegasus galaxy, our intentions to make an alliance with the Asgard, Liam and the Nox, all our reports to current threats in the galaxy, and most of what we've done in the past year." Klaus explained.

Jack was pissed. He knew that there had already been rumors spreading on Earth, he knew it was inevitable. Even though they directly instructed their people not to talk about what was happening here to anyone outside, once they went back home to visit their families and friends, it was inevitable somebody would tell something, but that didn't trouble Jack too much. The various governments couldn't ask if it was true since they didn't have the authority to ask anything the Terrans were doing, but with official reports having leaked out, it was an entirely different thing, "How, or better yet who?"

"We don't know. There was a short encrypted data burst to one of the satellites in geosynchronous orbit above us an hour ago. We decrypted it and it contained most of our official reports, even some classified as top secret. The satellite then sent the data somewhere in North America, we don't know if it is in the US or Canada."

"Coolidge, it must have been him." Jack stated.

"We don't know, but if he's the one, he wasn't alone in this. He doesn't have access to our reports. Somebody had to give him those reports in the first place."

Jack was angry. Now clearly wasn't the time for this, and worst of all he didn't know who had received the data, "I have the feeling that I'll start receiving several angry calls from various presidents around the planet very soon."

"Not necessarily. First of all we don't know if this is sanctioned by any government or if it is some rogue element like the Trust, and even if it is from some official governmental body, it's a question if they want to let you know that they know. As far as they are concerned, we don't know they have the data."

"Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better," Jack stated.

"Maybe this can work to our advantage. I've already taken some steps that could help us. It's a long shot, but maybe I can track the data-burst and his spreading throughout the planet. That way we could find out who's involved in this. I'm also checking the sensor logs, so we can at least narrow down the list of possible suspects here on Terrania. I still don't know why or how somebody did this. We check our people constantly, especially those with access to sensitive materials like the top secret reports that were sent."

"I still think that Coolidge or some other representative is involved in this. We should interrogate them." Jack stated.

Daniel knew better, "We can't, they have immunity here. We can't plug them on a lie detector and ask them questions. We can't even ask them about it."

"Yes, but we can check the sensors to see where they were when the transmission occurred. They can't stop us from doing that." Carter interjected.

"That's true, but what then_ They still have immunity and even if we know for certain that it's one of them, we can't do anything except expel them, and that wouldn't solve anything." Klaus said.

"Let's find out who is responsible first and then we'll decide what to do with him, or them." Jack said, already thinking about the moment when he will face Coolidge.

They went to work, checking the sensor logs that registered everything that happens on the island. They mostly focused on finding out where everybody was at the time and what they were doing. They also checked what workstations were active when the signal was sent and, once combined, those two searches had greatly decreased the number of possible suspects. From the resulting list, they checked if someone had the opportunity, namely if the person in question was alone at the time and if he was somewhere close to a working station that could have sent such a signal. The main problem was that somebody with intimate knowledge of the system's inner workings could do it from practically anywhere.

But that was also a clue. The perpetrator masked his actions and combined with the ability to hack into sensitive data made them believe he or she must have a scientific background. After more than half a day of checking and rechecking all the data, they had their prime suspect.

The gate connected and from the wormhole, Rodney stepped through. He didn't look very happy to be here. He'd just gone back to Atlantis after delivering his monthly report to Sam and he didn't even know why he was brought back so soon. Two security guards took him further inside the complex to a small conference room. He bantered the whole way, but the guys escorting him didn't give anything away. Inside the room, Jack, Klaus and Sam were sitting on one side of the table. Rodney was quickly deposited on the other side by the two guards, still very uneasy with the whole situation.

"What is going on?" Rodney asked uncertain.

Sam decided to start, "Rodney, yesterday evening a data package was sent from here through a satellite somewhere in Northern America. The package contained several reports, some of them even classified as top secret. We still don't know to whom, but we are confident we'll find out soon enough."

Rodney really didn't like what was happening here, "That's bad… but what has this to do with me?"

"We have spent the great part of the day tracking down who sent it and we have come down to one possible suspect and we are more than certain he did it."

Rodney started to sweat a little while connecting two and two, "Oh come on! You know I would never do something like this."

"Rodney…"

"No-no, this is preposterous. I can't believe…"

"Rodney, shut up!"

Rodney felt a little hurt by the harsh response, but nevertheless he did as he was told.

"We know you didn't do it."

Rodney felt relaxing after having heard those words, "What is it then? Why am I here?"

Jack took over, "What can you tell us about Kavanagh?"

"Kavanagh? He did this?" Rodney asked.

"We think so, yes. So, what can you tell me about him? After all, you are the one who spends most of the time with him, being his superior and all," Jack continued.

Rodney thought about it for a moment on how to best answer the question, "He's a moron."

"Rodney, that doesn't help us in the slightest. We are trying to find a motive why he would commit treason before we start interrogating him. From what we know he requested a transfer here a few weeks ago and he has spent most of that time in the States visiting his family. He never said why he asked for transfer from Atlantis," Sam asked.

"Ićve told you, it's because he's a moron, but he doesn't know it. He's a decent scientist, but the way he acts around people makes him pretty unlikeable. Do you remember the incident when the puddle jumper was stuck in the gate?" Rodney said, waiting for Sam to recall the report of the incident. "Well he wanted to let us die because it was too dangerous to even try to save us. That and many other incidents didn't help in making friends on Atlantis, that's for sure. You know the marines always say we don't leave anyone behind. Well, they didn't like him so easily suggesting the sacrifice of six people and they are not afraid to tell him what they think. He also had some strange views and theories about the Terran Alliance. We didn't know if he was joking about it or not, but he thought we shouldn't keep the knowledge we are gaining from the rest of the world. We tried to tell him it was because it would result in chaos if we released everything we have to the rest of the planet, but he thought that wasn't the reason why. Once he even suggested we have been overtaken by the Goa'uld."

Sam and Jack looked at each other for a moment, "Well we have a motive, that's for sure, but how it didn't come up when we'd screened people."

"I think I know how," Klaus said. "When the Terran Alliance started, we've had many applicants wanting to join and we had our hands full. People who were already part of the Stargate program weren't checked as thoroughly as it was the case for the newcomers."

Rodney was thoughtful for a moment, clearly unable to understand one thing, "Wait a minute, if I wasn't a suspect, why go with this whole charade to bring me here?"

Jack and Sam chuckled. They knew it wasn't time to trivialize the situation, but they couldn't help it and Klaus wasn't approving of their little ploy.

"Well, Sheppard thought it would be funny to scare you a little, that's all," Jack answered snickering.

"Funny, you call this funny! I almost wet myself when you implied I was involved. Oh John is gonna pay for this. I'm going to stuck him in a stasis pod for this, and a malfunctioning one… one that would age him instead of the opposite. He still looks younger than he really is anyway, thanks to Todd…"

Rodney continued ranting about what he would do to John as revenge, the others already thinking about the main problem they still had. Kavanagh had a motive and the only thing now was to confront him and find out what he knows. Rodney went back to Atlantis still planning his revenge. The idea of putting him in a stasis pod wasn't something he would really do, so he had to think of something better, and he knew revenge was better served cold. He will plan and when John least expects it, he will act.

In the meantime, Klaus and Jack had brought Kavanagh to an interrogation room. From the look on his face, he already knew what was this all about. No matter that everybody thought of him as a moron he was confident he did the right thing.

Inside the interrogation room, Klaus was sitting opposite to Kavanagh while Jack was leaning on the wall near the entrance door. Everything was a tactic to make him as much uncomfortable as possible and Jack staying near the door was to clearly show to Kavanagh that there was nowhere he could run, and having the Head of the TIA interrogate you would make anybody anxious. Klaus watched Kavanagh for a long time without saying anything. Sometimes it was best to leave the suspect have a chance to start talking without incitement. Kavanagh was feeling anxious and it showed by how much he moved in his chair, shifting his weight from one side to the other. Klaus impassively waited for him to start talking. And he did.

"I have nothing to say to you." Kavanagh said clearly frightened, but there was also arrogance in his voice.

Still there was no response from either Klaus or Jack. Klaus was an expert interrogator. Sometimes he would spend hours just sitting in front of a suspect without saying anything, just to rattle him up, and all those times, he had a real spy or terrorist as a suspect. Now he had a scientist who was far from being trained in interrogation techniques and he knew it was only a matter of seconds before Kavanagh started blabbing about what he did and the righteousness of his actions.

"Fine, I did it so what! You have no right to keep that information from the rest of the planet," Kavanagh said, switching from frightened to angry.

"Wow, it took him less than a minute to impeach himself," Jack remarked a little surprised how little it took.

"Mr. Kavanagh, we are not interested in your motives, we know them already. We are more interested in who has received the data you've sent."

"And why would I tell you?" Kavanagh retorted angrily.

"Mr. Kavanagh, you are facing charges for treason against the Terran Alliance. Those charges are very serious and you should not take them lightly. I also want to help you, I really do, but you must help yourself first and the only way you can do that is by telling us what you know," Klaus said, at the same moment making Kavanagh know in how much trouble he was and also making himself look friendly and prepared to help him. It wasn't true. Klaus couldn't care less about Kavanagh, but _that_ he didn't know.

"I'm an American citizen, and you can't do anything to me," Kavanagh said, grasping for straws.

"On the contrary Mr. Kavanagh, you became a Terran after you'd signed the agreement. That means _we_ have authority over you and we will enforce it to the full extent of the law. Do you know what the penalty for treason in the Terran Alliance is? You should, it's the same as in the United States." Klaus paused for a moment, looking at Kavanagh who was starting to sweat like a pig. He gave him a few more seconds for the threat to sink in before continuing. "But, we can help you, and we will show leniency _if _you are prepared to cooperate. If not…"

Kavanagh was screwed, royally screwed, and he knew it. He started sobbing uncontrollably and both Jack and Klaus knew he just cracked. After that, he told them everything they wanted to know. He told them how he did it, why and to who he'd sent the data. He also told them how they approached him while he was on vacation visiting his parents and how they offered him a lot of money as an additional incentive. Once he gave them the data, he was supposed to wait for a while before resigning and returning home at which point they would pay him for his services. They now had the address where he'd sent the data and, with the help of the modified Tok'ra memory recall device, they had a clear image of the perpetrators. Klaus used the data he'd just received and compared with the global search for the data burst he made. It gave a clear trace they could use to track down the real criminals, since Kavanagh was more a victim of his own stupidity and naïve that anything else.

"So what do we do next?" Jack quipped in his usual way.

Klaus leaned back in his chair thinking of their next move. "We track them down like mad dogs, that's what we'll do," Klaus said clearly angry at the whole thing, but he also sounded resolute.

"You know do you, we don't have any authority outside this island?" Jack asked even though he already knew what the answer would be.

"I don't care, and I think you don't care either," Klaus answered.

Jack took a deep breath, "You are right, I don't, but I think we have to be careful. We won't have support from anybody on the planet if we get caught."

Klaus smiled. "So, nothing's new, at least not for me. I've spent a good portion of my life as a spy and we never had much support then. Especially with black ops behind enemy line, and I know you'd done some of those yourself, maybe even more than I did, so you know what I'm talking about."

"I do, but there's a slight difference here. We always knew what _we_ were risking if we got caught, but in this case we are not risking just our skin, or better say our men's skin. We are risking severe repercussions for this whole organization too if we get caught."

"Then we must make sure we don't get caught," Klaus answered flatly. "Look, we both know we can't go on like this, just waiting for something to happened and when it does, like now, we can't do anything about it. We must show them that if you mess with us you'll get burned."

"You don't have to convince _me_, I'm already onboard, but the rest of the council. Sam won't be a problem, and I think Dmitri will be onboard too, but the rest..." Jack explained his concern.

"What about Daniel? Isn't he going to back you up?"

"No if he thinks that the damage is going to be greater than the reword. He has his own head and he is not going to back me up blindly. The only thing in our favor is that he'd seen a lot of crap in the last ten years and he's not so innocent anymore. He can decide it's what we should do, but I can't be certain."

"Do we even have to go to the council for approval over this? After all, this is a matter linked to our two departments, if not of mine alone." Klaus asked.

"We do because if we get caught and we didn't ask them it will be much worse."

Klaus thought for a moment, trying to find faults in Jack's reasoning, but he couldn't find any, "Fine, we'll ask them."

They did ask and they won, but it wasn't unanimous. Emily Weston, from the Health Department, Jacques Dupont from the Colonization Department and Lisa Giacomini form Education were against it and even though they had the majority, the rest of the council had spent another hour trying to convince the three remaining members of the council. This was the first time the council wasn't in complete accord on such an important matter and nobody liked it. The three council members against it had good arguments, simply stating that it wasn't in their rights to do it and that the possible repercussions could be fatal for the organization. The others tried to reason with them by saying that this was only the beginning and that, if they didn't fight back, who was to stop terrorists from doing something even worse knowing that they could not retaliate in kind. Lisa Giacomini was the only one to agree to this point, stating that their safety was in jeopardy and without retaliation they were inviting similar acts or even worse ones to happen again. After an hour the council stopped arguing, knowing there was no chance in hell for the other two members to change their minds on the matter. Reluctantly, they began planning the first black op the Terrans were about to do on Earth's soil. They just hoped it would be the last or at least not a frequent recurrence.

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Aboard Liam's Ship**

Liam was sitting in his chair in the middle of a dimly lit bridge on his ship. On several stations around him comm. officers were working without bothering with anything else that was happening on the bridge. For some reason, Liam couldn't hear them and he didn't know why he couldn't. There were many holographic displays floating in midair, each showing a portion of space around the ship. Just in front of Liam, a hologram was showing a map of the entire star system and on his left, a display was showing the image of a planet. That planet troubled Liam for some reason, but he didn't know exactly why. He saw the planet and he suddenly realized it was Eden Prime, and the reason why he was troubled was because there were ships in orbit, ships that were firing at the capital city on the planet. The shields were glowing brightly with each impact and the ships were firing relentlessly the entire time.

There were a lot of things he didn't understand and that scared him. The first was the fact that he never had a crew on his ship, but now several officers were there all working on their stations. It was bizarre at the very list. The ship was after all completely automated. The second thing that troubled him was the lights. When the lights were dimmed, he knew the ship was in battle conditions. Jack standing on his left side was the straw that made Liam utterly clueless about the whole situation. He wanted to turn his ship around to go help the Edenians, blasting those ships orbiting the planet, but somehow he knew he couldn't. There was something else preventing him from doing it, no matter how much he wanted it. Liam looked again at the tactical map in front of him, then another display on his right. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. In space, there was a massive fleet with ships numbering in thousands, ranging in size from half a mile to several miles and he had never seen those types of ships before.

Jack started talking through his comm. device, but Liam was unable to hear or understand what he was saying. That was also strange. Why he couldn't hear anything and why was Jack even here? The tactical map displayed the approaching fleet, but his ship wasn't the only one to face the enemy. Another fleet was there on the opposite side of the approaching fleet, apparently waiting to engage them in battle. The strange thing was that it had many ships he knew well, but also some he had never seen before. There was hundreds of O'Neill battlecruisers, Guardian's battleships and cruisers, Earth battleships and battlecruisers all numbering in the hundreds. There was also dozens of larger ships, some clearly of Asgard design, other Terrans or Guardians. He knew some of them were the new dreadnought ships he was just beginning to design, but he didn't build any of them yet, and yet, somehow, there were dozens of them here. All of this made him realize why he wasn't helping the people on the planet. He had something much worse to worry about.

He watched as the two fleets reached weapons range and then, hell broke loose. Energy weapons filled the space between the two fleets while scorches of drones flew from hundreds of ships accompanied by almost as many torpedoes and missiles of many different types. The wait was excruciating, knowing how much firepower was coming towards them and the only thing he could do was to sit and wait.

And hell did finally break loose.

"Liam, wake up! Liam, you have to wake up!"

Liam opened his eyes and looked toward the source of the voice he was hearing. It was William, yelling and shaking him at the same time. He tried to focus on Williams face, but it was difficult. He was feeling his heart racing and he still wasn't lucid enough to fully comprehend what was going on, and William's burned face and clothes were not helping at all.

Confusing as it was, Liam somehow managed to sit on the side of his bed and regain control of his thoughts, "What happened?"

"You tell _me_ what happened, because I surely haven't the slightest idea," William replied.

Liam looked intently at the burned face and clothes William was wearing, "Why do you look all burned up?"

"Why, you are actually asking me why? You burned half the room, that's why. I had to erect a forcefield to stop the fire and heat from spreading to the rest of the ship."

"I did what exactly?" Liam still didn't get any of what William was telling him.

"Five minutes ago my sensors detected a sudden change in your heartbeat and blood pressure. I rushed here to see what was going on, but before I could even reach you, the room temperature spiked. I raised a forcefield and entered the room to see what was going on." William started explaining.

"And what was it?"

"You were emanating so much heat and radiation that you burned me to crisp, that's what happened. And I'm supposed to be impervious to a lot of that staff."

"I did this?" Liam said looking around the burned room.

"Yes, you did. Would you please tell me what happened?"

"I… I'm not sure exactly. I think I was in the future, or at least dreamt about it."

"You are telling me you are clairvoyant now?" William asked unconvinced.

"I have no clue what it was, but it was so vivid and it also felt so real. I never felt a dream like this, or maybe I should say a nightmare."

"Nightmare? Why nightmare?" William was now curious.

Liam took a deep breath, still trying to calm down before he could even start to tell his '_dream'_. William listened intently, changing his facial expression on several occasions, ranging from startled to one of utter fear. Liam and William knew there were people who had the ability to see the future, but Liam never displayed such abilities. Liam didn't display much of any abilities some of his people had showed in the past. He once tried to move a small object with his mind and almost got a brain aneurism as a result. Though, it didn't mean much, especially after everything that was happening to him. The changes and the fact that he had ascended again under strange circumstances made them believe everything was possible by now. There was also the fact that he burned his room and William in the process and they didn't have a clue what was that all about. One thing was for certain, they couldn't ignore what he'd seen in his dream and what could possibly be their future.

"William, disregard all our plans for increasing our production capacity. We need to come up with new ones, something that will increase our production tenfold."

"That won't be easy you know. We are already stretched as it is."

"I know, but if what I saw was any indication of what we will face in the future, we need to change things. Start thinking of ways to increase our ship production and other stuff we'll need and try to minimize the number of people needed to operate those ships. Not only we don't have enough shipyards for something like this, but we also don't have the people to operate so many ships even if we had them or _will_ have them. I'm a little confused about the timing right now, so…"

"Alright, I'll do what I can. What are _you_ going to do?"

"I'm going to spend a lot more time in the lab, coming up with new weapons or something to give us an edge. I've always believed that brute force is the least effective method of them all. Now that I know what we are going to face, I can also start thinking of a better way to beat it. Is everything ready for the changes we need to make to the gates in the Milky Way galaxy?"

"Yes. We have the designs for the crystals and production is already underway."

"Good, let's go to Earth and give them the blueprints and the devices they'll need to make the changes. After that, we need to pay a visit to the Aschen."

"Can't somebody else do it? Don't you think we have enough on our plate already?"

"I do, but right now there's no ship in the Milky Way galaxy that is large enough and that has a cloaking device on it. We would have to send a cruiser from here and I rather do it myself instead since we are going there anyway," Liam said not liking the fact that he still had to keep so many ships in the Andromeda galaxy.

William agreed, both of them leaving the burned room shortly after. William was going to '_change' _his clothes and face while Liam was going to his lab to start thinking of ways to beat the unknown enemy he saw in his dream. One thing also happened in the dream that Liam didn't tell William and he didn't know exactly why he didn't. In his dream, there was somebody else on the bridge of his ship. On his right side he saw Aenea and in that moment he understood something that frightened him and made him even more clueless at the same time. A strange mix of emotions and the reason he felt them was because he knew, deep down, she wasn't an ascended being anymore.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

Liam delivered the goods he had promised and the Terrans sent the blueprints to Atlantis. The process of building the crystals would last only a few days with the machinery they had there especially since they needed to build only half of them while the other half would be built by Liam. A dozen teams were tasked with the job of upgrading the stargates and DHDs around the galaxy and they knew it would take some time to change them all. Every team could finish five or maybe six planets every day, but there were thousands of them around the galaxy. Still, in two months they should finish them all, that was of course if nothing delayed their work and they all knew it was only a matter of when and not if.

The SG-1 team became a strange one. Mitchell, Ford and Peters were constantly on the team, but the forth member depended mostly on the occasion. Before Vala supposedly died when the supergate exploded, she'd been the fourth member, completing the four person team, but now the fourth member was missing and only on few occasions had been occupied by somebody else. This wasn't the first time SG-1 had only three members, but now they were missing the usual scientist and archeologist in their midst and the team suffered for it. Peters was good with technical stuff and in most situations he could act as the designated scientist on the team, but they didn't have anybody that could be referred to as an archeologist or linguist. Lately, Teal'c had come on several occasions to Terrania to meet with Jack or, what Jack believed to be the real reason for coming, to escape the never-ending political wrangling that his current job demanded of him. Both of them found themselves being forced behind a desk and they didn't like it. Because of it, Teal'c would from time to time decide to join SG-1, just to escape his usual duties and probably to decompress a little by visiting a new planet or, if he was lucky, by shooting somebody. Teal'c didn't realize how much he missed his old team and the job they had done for almost ten years they'd spent together. Teal'c decided he couldn't pass the opportunity to go on a mission on an unexplored planet with the new SG-1 even though he didn't know any of the three team members. He knew a little about Mitchell with whom he had worked in the past, but Ford and Peters were unknowns to him. He didn't mind though. He knew they were good men because they wouldn't have been chosen as members of the flag team if it wasn't true.

They'd been on three planets already, updating the gates and DHDs so that the priors couldn't come to this galaxy from theirs and Teal'c loved every minute of it. It was strange because the missions didn't go as smooth as somebody would think or maybe that was exactly the reason why he liked it so much. On one planet they ran into the Lucian Alliance. That made their task last a lot longer than they'd planned. They had to shoot the small group of thieves and thugs that attacked them from the moment they'd noticed their uniforms. The mission ended by being a double success, with the captured thugs as bonus. After they'd finished updating the Stargate and DHD, they took the three unconscious thugs to the Alpha site where they would be interrogated in hope they could provide some useful information. In the last year, the Alpha site also became a correctional facility where they could keep shady elements like the three men they had just captured on this mission. They were mostly Lucian Alliance, but there had also been a few Goa'uld they'd captured and even one prior. Nobody wanted such elements on Earth and especially not on the island. Because of it, they had built a correctional facility on the Alpha site a few miles from the main complex. They still didn't know for how long they would have to keep those people there or what they'd do with them afterwards.

The two other planets the SG-1 team went on were much easier, although, one of them ended up being really spooky. It was like a ghost planet with no one on it even though there was a village there, but they decided a thorough checking of the planet wasn't part of their current mission and that they would do it on a later time. The team returned from the third and last planet on their current list, but instead of having the time for a well-deserved rest, Daniel came with the idea to go on another planet they'd just finished checking. The planet was of particular interest to Daniel because it appeared it had some archeological value. From the MALP's images it looked like the gate was inside a large room made in a clear Goa'uld fashion. The problem was that they thought they knew all planets that were now or somewhere in the past had been occupied by the Goa'uld. The coordinates of the planet in question also confirmed it was outside the usual Goa'uld territory and since there should be at least some archeological findings on the planet, Daniel wanted to go with the team. Of course, a heated argument ensued between Daniel and Jack, Daniel trying to explain the importance of what they could find and what it could mean, and Jack replying that if he couldn't go Daniel also couldn't go. The argument was more of the _'pissed-off' _kind in which Jack felt left behind to work his desk job while Daniel and Teal'c were having all the fun. Then Sam came down from her office and started accusing Jack that the amount of what he called '_desk job'_ was nothing compared to what she had on her plate lately and that if somebody should go it was her and not him. Jack replied by saying how she liked her job opposed to him who hated his and how _that_ made her argument completely void of any merit.

Teal'c stood there with a raised eyebrow thinking of the reasons why all of them took jobs they didn't like and came to realize they did it because they had to. He only didn't know if this was a good enough reason to make their lives so miserable. Mitchell on the other hand was smiling, thinking how he made the right decision to become the leader of SG-1. He never had so much fun in his entire life. Sure, he missed flying supersonic jets and all that, but the reword for being on the leading SG team was much more rewording than what even he thought it would have ended up to be. In the end, Daniel decided to sneak out of the argument and go change in his off-world uniform. Of course that made Jack and Sam unite against the proverbial common enemy, deciding they would let him have it this time, but also starting to plan how they would find a way to make him pay for this, probably by sending him on a crappy planet if he liked so much going on missions. The problem was they didn't exactly know what a crappy planet was for Daniel. To Jack and Sam the planet he was going to right now looked as a crappy enough planet, but surly Daniel didn't think the same way.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – P4M-328**

The now five men team stepped through the gate into a dark room where they could only make out general shapes from their surroundings. It took them a few more minutes to canvas the area and understand that something was very wrong with this place. The walls and decorations on them were not made in gold as the Goa'uld had always done. Instead, they were made from cheap materials, clear indication they were fakes. The most disappointing fact was the DHD. It was made of plastic, which meant they didn't have a way to dial back home. Even a manual dial was out of the question since the gate was locked, clear indication there was no residual power in it. Without a power source like a Naquadah generator they were stuck on the planet, something nobody expected and even less liked. Exploring further the area was the only thing they could do right now. They knew that Earth would check up on them if they didn't return in a few hours, but their current concern was to find out where they were exactly and if it was safe to just wait for them to call and send a generator they could use to power up the gate.

The search reviled they were inside a museum and the only positive side was that it was night on the planet and that the museum was closed at the moment. The thing they didn't know was that the security guard had already seen them while making one of his usual rounds. He was a shmuck, not somebody that could be categorized as a threat for the team, but the shmuck was at least smart enough to call for help believing they were thieves that had come here to steal some valuable artifacts. In the meantime, Peters worked on changing the crystal inside the gate so that when the SGC called they could bail out the same instant.

Several swat teams poured inside the museum surrounding the four Terrans and one Jaffa. They saw them coming, but that didn't help them. There was nowhere to run and trying to defend their position would be suicide. The only thing they could do was to try to talk with whoever was in charge and explain who they were, hoping they would believe them and eventually let them go. It was a small chance and they knew it, but they didn't have any other viable option at the moment. Mitchell decided he had to do one more thing before surrendering and that was to shoot the device Liam gave them to change the crystal inside the gate. Liam was adamant that, rather than to allow the device to fall into others hands, he would rather have it destroyed. They knew that even if they somehow managed to convince the people here they were peaceful explorers the chance they would get all of their equipment back was equal to zero.

The race of humans that lived on the planet where pretty advanced from what little the team had been able to ascertain. They were somewhere around Earth's '80s or '90s, before the Stargate program even began and that was something the team didn't particularly like. It was easy to make parallels with their own planet and to know how would the inhabitants of the planet react and behave even in the case they believed them to be from another world. It was difficult to believe they would act friendly. Paranoia and fear would take over and it would dictate their actions rather than reason and they knew how bad that could turn out to be. As they'd anticipated, the team was taken into custody and transferred to some facility outside the museum where the team had spent the next hour or so in a small cell waiting for somebody to come. When they finally did, Daniel offered to be the first to go even though, technically speaking, Mitchell was the leader, but since Daniel was a diplomat they thought it would be a good idea for him to make first contact and see what could be done.

Daniel was taken to an interrogation room where a man and two guards were waiting. They placed Daniel on a chair to the opposite side of the table from where the man was sitting. On the table there were a few items that belonged to the team.

Daniel decided it could be a good thing to start the conversation first, "What's the name of your race?"

That startled the man a little, "What is the meaning of your question?"

"I'm just asking the name of the race that inhabits this planet. Usually it is a derivation from the planet's name," Daniel answered calmly.

Quartus understood what was going on, or at least he thought he did, "Oh I see, they informed me you are claiming to be aliens, but that won't work. Your attempt to steer the conversation is not going to succeed."

"I'm not trying to do anything. I just don't like to call you 'People from P4M-328', that's all. P4M-328 is the designation we gave to this planet."

"You rebels always find a way to amuse me with your stories," Quartus said knowingly.

"Rebels? We are not rebels."

"Stop with the charade and tell me what were you doing in the museum. What were you trying to accomplish there?"

"We came there through the gate… the portal in the room where you found us. You see, we are explorers that travel…"

"Enough! You will tell me what you were doing there and that's my final warning," Quartus was losing his patience.

"I was trying to," Daniel said with an even voice, but he knew that the man on the other side of the table was angry, "Look. You see all this equipment on the table? Can you tell me that they look like they are from your world?"

Quartus looked at the various items on the table and he had to admit, they looked alien to him. The Zat-gun, with the strange color and serpent-like shape was of special interest to him. No matter what those items were he was convinced these men were rebels, "You could have fabricated something just to look alien so, that doesn't prove anything."

"That's true, we could have made those items just for show, but if that's the case, would they work? I mean, one thing is to make a toy, but another is making a weapon that you or anybody else on your planet doesn't know how to make."

Quartus looked at Daniel for a long time before asking the next obvious question, "So, that's a weapon. How does it work?"

"We call it a Zat-gun. His full name is Zat'ni'katel and it was developed by a race called the Goa'uld. It discharges a special form of energy that is capable of making the person you hit fall unconscious. If you hit the person a second time he or she usually dies and if you hit him for the third time the person or object disappears. You can try and shoot the chair over there three times and you'll see what happens," Daniel explained.

Quartus looked at the weapon lying on the table uncertain what to do. The man in front of him sounded so convincing that made him wonder and he had no real reason not to shoot a chair. If it didn't work, it would be proof that he was laying and this whole charade would finally end, but what if it did work. Quartus took the weapon in his hand, trying to figure out how it works. Daniel stepped in, explaining how to activate the weapon and how to fire it. Quartus took his time aiming at the chair and then he fired. He was startled to see that that thing did indeed fire, although it did nothing to the chair except for creating an electrical arc that went all around it. He looked at Daniel who nodded to him, encouraging him to shoot again. He did, twice more, and the second time the chair vanished as if it was an act of magic.

Quartus leapt from his chair to see if the chair was still there. It wasn't, the chair was gone, "How?"

"I really don't know how, I'm not a scientist and I told you, we didn't make the weapon. There is other ways I can prove to you that we are not from your planet if you are still not convinced."

"How?"

"Well, I told you we came here through the big rounded ring in your museum. We would have returned home immediately after we realized we were inside a museum, but here on your side you are missing the device that makes the gate work. We call it the DHD, as in Dial Home Device. You have a replica of it in front of the gate."

"What has this to do with proving you are from another planet?"

"I was coming to that," Daniel retorted a little pissed by the interruption, "Anyways, there is a protocol our people follows that, when the team doesn't call back in two hours, they dial the planet in question to see if something went wrong. If I'm right about how much time passed since you have taken us prisoners, I think the gate will open in less than thirty minutes and with this device you can talk with our people on our planet. Oh, and another thing, don't stand in front of the gate when it starts to spin. The event horizon will kill you when the wormhole opens."

Quartus was stunned. He didn't know what to say or do. One thing was for certain. This man didn't act like the usual rebel or terrorist, at least not the ones he knew. The weapon still in his hand was the second thing that made him doubt he wasn't a rebel after all. Quartus decided to see what will happen in the museum and go from there rather than sit here not knowing what questions to ask or what the ramifications would be if it turned out they were from another planet after all.

Daniel was returned to the cell with the other members still inside. They waited and then waited a little more. They didn't have a watch or anything that could give them the time, but they were certain it has been at least an hour. Daniel thought it was possible Jack didn't call immediately after the two hours had passed and it was even possible that Quartus didn't wait long enough. After another fifteen minutes, two guards came and took Daniel away. He was brought to the same interrogation room as before and Quartus was there waiting in the same chair.

Daniel sat in the chair on the opposite side, "So, did the gate open?"

Quartus didn't answer. Instead he asked another question as if he didn't even hear Daniel, "Where are you coming from?"

"We came from a planet called Earth. Our planet is approximately forty thousand light years from your planet," Daniel replied truthfully, thinking it was the best way to go.

"What is your mission here?"

Daniel didn't think it would be a good idea to start explaining what the real reason for them to be here was. It could become too complicated to explain, "I've told you, we are explorer, and we go to other planets to meet people and their culture, make treaties with them or even alliances."

Quartus was dubious for some reason, "You told me before that you intended to return home the moment you found out you were inside a museum. Why would you do that if you are here to meet people?"

"Oh that. You are right, it looks suspicious for us to come here and wanting to go back without meeting you, but there is a good reason for that. You see, before we came here, we thought the place was abandoned. We didn't know there was an advanced race leaving on the planet and that we came in a museum. When we make first contact we like to make it through a radio transmission before coming through the gate, and only if the people on the planet want us to. When we realized where we were, we thought it would be best if we returned home and tried to make contact the usual way and ask for permission if we can come." Daniel explained their reasons for wanting to go back home.

Quartus was still dubious for some reason, "And that was the only reason for you being here?"

Daniel didn't know if he should start telling him the real reason for them to be here or not, "Yes."

"Hm, that's strange? What was that device, the one you destroyed before we could take it from you?" Quartus asked knowing full well that there was something Daniel wasn't telling him and that made him extremely suspicious.

"The device Mitchell destroyed was given to us by another race that doesn't want anybody else to have it," Daniel explained hoping it would be enough. It wasn't.

"So, that race doesn't want anybody else to have it, but they gave it to you?"

"Well, probably they don't want us to have it either, but we are working with them on something and for that we need the device."

"And what would that be?"

Daniel sighed. He didn't know how to go from here, "While we travel to other worlds the device allows us to upgrade the gate. It's nothing dangerous. It upgrades the gate so that nobody from another galaxy can come to your planet."

"Another galaxy!"

Daniel knew they were entering into the unbelievable territory if not already. He knew that it was already difficult for Quartus to believe what he was telling him. If he started to explain the Ori, ascended beings bent on domination and, to top that, from another galaxy, Quartus would most certainly start laughing at him, "That was the reason I didn't mention it. I knew it is too unbelievable and that there is no way you would believe me."

"Try me," Quartus said simply, really wanting to hear this.

Daniel was almost ready to stop speaking, but he decided to tell Quartus the truth. He began to tell the story. He told Quartus about the race that came through the gate from another galaxy, spreading their religion to every planet they would visit. He explained what the repercussions were for those on the planet who didn't accept their religion, also giving a few real examples of what had happened to some of them when they'd refused. He then digressed as it was usual for Daniel to do, starting to talk about the Goa'uld, the war they'd waged with them and in some degree still were, also telling him how some artifacts in the museum were in fact Goa'uld in origin, which meant that somewhere in the past the Goa'uld had been here. Quartus, on the other hand, listened to Daniel's tale not knowing if he should cry or laugh at what he was hearing.

"This is…"

"I know, unbelievable. I told you you wouldn't believe me."

Quartus nodded in complete agreement to Daniel's last statement, but he was also thinking about the reason why would he give such an unbelievable story.

Daniel waited a moment before deciding to give it another shot, "Can you answer my previous question?"

"And what question would that be?"

"Did the gate open? Did you talk to my people?"

Quartus thought about it for a moment and decided there was no reason not to tell him, "I did."

"And?"

"The man I talked to have confirmed your story, demanding for the same thing as you did, to let you go back through the portal."

"Did the man you talked to said what his name was?"

"O'Neill, I think."

"Yes, he is the Chairman of our Council," Daniel said pausing for a moment, "Look, we just want to go back home and then start first contact as it should have happened in the first place, if you are willing of course. If not, we will leave you alone to live your lives however you want and you'll never hear from us again."

Quartus shook his head, "That is something that will never happen."

"What will never happen?" Daniel asked not knowing to which part he was referring to.

"You being released. Once we understood you were indeed not rebels but aliens, our leaders have decided we should prepare ourselves for the worst," Quartus answered with a somber voice.

"Which means preparing for an invasion," Daniel finished knowing what fear can do. "Quartus you are making a mistake. My people won't stop until we are returned back home. You should know that we are peaceful people, but you should also know that we never leave anyone behind."

"I'm sorry but they won't succeed. The gate will be buried very soon."

Daniel sighed, "Quartus, that won't stop them."

Quartus now looked at Daniel not understanding where he was going with this, "Are you telling me they can come even if the gate is buried?"

"Yes, we don't need to use the gate," Daniel told Quartus letting him know there were other ways to reach them.

Quartus chuckled, "Oh please! Now you are telling me you have spaceships that can fly half across the galaxy, is that it? Do they also have shields and ray-guns?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm telling you and if you think about it, it isn't that farfetched."

"I'm not a scientist, but even I know at which speed a ship can travel through space, and I don't think your people are planning to travel for the next forty thousand years to come here."

"Quartus, if that was true, how did the gate come here in the first place? The race that built them had to bring it hear somehow. Do you think _they _had spent forty thousand years to bring it here?"

Quartus understood what Daniel was saying. Somebody did, _somehow_, travel here. And if the rest of what Daniel was telling him was also true, they also did it on many other worlds, "You are telling me you have the ability to travel at speeds faster than the speed of light? How is that possible?"

"I'm not a scientist so I can't give you an exact answer, but in short, it's possible to open a tear in space to what we call hyperspace and travel through it at speeds far greater than what our space-time allows us to. Quartus, we have ships that can travel to other galaxies and we do it regularly," Daniel explained.

Quartus was frightened by now. He wanted for this entire mess to be over. This wasn't the day he expected it would be and he was over his head with this whole thing, "It is out of my hands. Soon people will come here to take you to another facility, I don't know where."

"Quartus, I'm telling you, this is a big mistake your people are making. We can be friends, even allies one day, but if you continue this way there will be repercussions, to which extent nobody can predict. Imagine the panic it could cause a ship in orbit above your planet. We went through the same thing a few years back and it wasn't pretty. You must find a way to send us back home before it's too late."

Quartus listened to Daniel's words, knowing full well that what he was saying had his merits. The sudden appearance of aliens above his planet could provoke massive panic and the repercussions could be so serious they could be unable to recover for years to come, "What do you mean, you went through something like this?"

"Our public didn't know about aliens even though we were traveling to other worlds for more than a decade. Two years back an enemy of ours showed up with two ships above our planet and started firing on several of our biggest cities. We were able to destroy the ships in short time, but the damage had already been done. There was panic, public unrest and severe economic repercussions as a direct result from the attack and we still haven't recovered fully. We also had a lot of help from other races and we also had another fact in our favor. We were able to destroy the enemy and that had greatly diminished the amount of panic throughout the planet. Both of those things you don't have and the repercussions for a ship appearing above you planet could be even worse. Please let me contact my people and come up with a solution before it is too late," Daniel explained the seriousness of the situation they were in, but he also knew the chances of actually accomplishing anything were minimal. He also believed that Quartus had little saying in the whole matter.

Quartus didn't say anything. He just waited in silence for a little longer before leaving the room. Daniel was shortly after taken back to his cell where the others were. The situation was escalating and right now his safety was the least of his worries.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Hyperspace**

The commander of the ship was sitting on his usual chair while the rest of the crew was quietly working on their consoles. The Odyssey was flying through hyperspace, burning Naquadah and Naquadria in its massive reactors like it was cheap gasoline. The ship was pushing the reactors to hundred and twenty percent, all in the effort to reach the planet where SG-1 had been captured as soon as possible. The ship was making 9.573 light years every hour and the reactors were feeling the strain of keeping up with the hungry demands for power the hyperdrive was asking in order to achieve such an incredible speed. The ship had burned every last ounce of his considerable energy reserves and after almost four hours, they were close to their destination.

The door of the bridge opened and Jack stepped through almost as if he was able to sense they were close. Jack had contacted the People of P4M-328 three times through the gate and he didn't like how the conversation had ended in all three cases. First a man named Quartus answered instead of his team. That was enough for Jack to know something had gone terribly wrong. He understood immediately that those people didn't know there were aliens on other planets and he knew they must be terrified at that point. No matter what they felt or not, Jack tried to come to an understanding with them, telling them it was best if they just let their people return home and then start normal diplomatic relations in a much more relaxed fashion for both sides. Of course they didn't agree to anything the first time he'd talked to them and even the second time didn't go any better, but after the third time they blew him of, he knew the time for talks was over and that it was time to act. He had beamed to the Odyssey that was thankfully still in orbit, instructing the captain to fly to the planet in question as fast as he could. The captain obeyed with Jack's demand as best as he could and he could even hear it from the way the reactors were wining and protesting throughout the entire ship.

"Are we there yet?"

"A few more minutes Councilor," Emerson replied diplomatically. He didn't know how else to call Jack, even though they knew each other for the best part of their lives.

"Good," Jack replied simply, without giving up how worried he actually was. He knew that in the four hours they'd spent traveling a lot of things could have happened and even before they left Earth, he didn't have any proof the team was still alive.

The ship suddenly decelerated, clear indication they'd reached their destination and it took another five minutes for the ship to reach geosynchronous orbit above the planet. The ship, under the captain's order, went in stealth mode the moment they'd exited hyperspace and they were pretty sure the people on the planet couldn't detect them.

"Initiate a scan for any subspace transmission," the Captain order in an attempt to pick up their sub-dermal implants.

The officer worked for a while before answering to the captain, "Sir I'm not picking up any subspace signal from their subdermal implants, but I have located the MALP's subspace transponder. I'm relaying the coordinates."

The captain ordered to change orbit above the source of the signal immediately. Below them, there was a large city with several million people in it. The MALP was located in a large building and through intensive scans they were able to get the general layout. The building had many levels above the ground, but there were almost as many levels below it.

"Why can't we pick up the team's signals?" Jack asked.

"We can't be sure, but the subdermal implants have a much weaker signal than the MALP's transponder and there is a chance that, if they are enough underground, we can't pick them up," the comm. officer also tasked with the sensors told Jack.

"So it is possible they are in that building and we just can't get their signals?" Jack said, more as a rhetorical question than anything else.

"It's possible. I don't think they would have taken them somewhere else than the rest of their equipment," Emerson replied.

"That could be a problem. If we can't pick up their signals, we can't beam them out of there. We must find another way to get them out. Can we contact the people who are in charge down there but without broadcasting the signal to the rest of the planet?"

"We can't use our subspace transponder because they don't have anything so advanced to receive our signal. That means we must use a radio signal and even if we use a tight beam I can't guarantee some radio amateur won't pick it up," the comm. officer replied.

"Do it," Jack ordered.

It took almost two hours to make contact with the people on the ground. First it took almost half an hour for one of their deep space radio antennas to pick up the transmission. Then it took even longer for the person working there to understand it wasn't some kind of joke and again it took even longer to get somebody in charge to reply to their transmission. Eventually, they managed to sync their signals and make a decent two way video and audio connection. On the bridge main screen the image of their Chancellor was displayed. The man was a little startled by all this and it clearly showed, even on the screen. Beside him, there were at least two more people there, with one of them definitely being military.

"Chancellor, I'm glad we were finally able to establish a connection so that we can discuss our current predicament and find a mutually acceptable solution to the problem we find ourselves in," Jack said in a very diplomatic and even tone.

"Yes-yes, of course. What are your demands?" the Chancellor asked fearfully.

'_What the hell is he talking about?' _Jack had a big questioning mark plastered on his forehead.

"Chancellor, I'm not sure if you are aware of the situation, but you have some of our people in custody and your people have disregarded several times my request for them to be released and allowed to leave your planet through the gate?" Jack explained.

"Oh, yes-yes…" the Chancellor started his reply, but he was interrupted by the person standing on his left, the military one. After a short and quiet conversation he continued, "Uh… about that… I think I'll have to talk to my people first. I'll contact you as soon as I have something."

The connection was severed from their end, leaving Jack and the rest of the bridge stunned, "What the hell just happened!"

"I'm not sure Jack, but there is a chance the man just craped his pants. There is also the chance he didn't know anything of what happened until now and he needs to check the facts first," Emerson said, trying to give a plausible explanation for what had just happened and at the same time trying to calm Jack down.

"That's one possibility, yes," Jack said thoughtfully.

"What else can it be?" Emerson asked.

Jack gave him a look that made Emerson think a little more about the whole conversation and it made him realize there was another possibility. The Chancellor didn't know what to say because they couldn't give them what they were asking, "You don't think…"

"I don't know, I just don't," Jack said frustrated, thinking of the worst. If they were dead it would explain why the Chancellor was acting that way.

While in his head thousands of dark scenarios were playing out, all depicting different ways the team could have ended up dead, the connection reestablished.

"I'm sorry for the interruption earlier Mr. O'Neill. I had to confer with my staff on how best to approach this situation," the Chancellor said, still looking extremely frightened.

"I understand that Chancellor. What did you decide?"

"Well, you must understand that your people came here without our approval and our laws are…"

"Chancellor, I'm sorry for interrupting you, but the matter is really simple. Just tell us where our people are and we can all go home," Jack explained as concisely as he knew how what should happen next.

"Yes-yes, of course… let me get back to you," the Chancellor answered breaking the connection once more.

"What the fuck!" Jack swore at laud. "Beam that son-of-a-bitch on the bridge."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Emerson asked.

"It's not… and do it anyway," Jack replied really pissed.

The captain order one of the officer on the bridge to do it and shortly after the Chancellor rematerialized on the bridge of the Odyssey, just in front of a disgruntled Jack. The man looked around trying to understand what just happened.

"Chancellor, can we now have our little conversation _without_ the constant interruptions every two minutes?"

The Chancellor looked directly at Jack, but for some reason it looked as if he didn't even hear him speak. That was just before the man slumped to the floor unconscious.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Jack yelled throwing both hands in the air. "Let's take this man to the sickbay."

Two medics came only a few minutes later, taking the unconscious man to the sickbay. They didn't even exit the bridge when the connection reestablished and the man on the other side clearly saw his leader on a gurney being taken away.

"What happened to our Chancellor?" the person on the display asked.

Jack turned after hearing the voice coming from the display. He sighed, "He fainted."

"He what?"

"When we transported him hear he immediately fainted. We are taking him to the sickbay so our doctor can check him out," Jack tried to explain.

"Why did you take our leader? What are your demands for his safe return?"

"I transported your leader because we were not getting any answers from you with all the interruptions. I wanted to speak face to face so we can finally solve this whole mess," Jack retorted, still angry at how the negotiations were going so far. He'd never thought diplomacy can be so difficult. "Look, what happened to our people? That is all I'm asking. Is that such a difficult question to answer?"

The man on the screen waited for a moment before replying, "We do not negotiate with terrorists."

The connection ended for the third time and Jack was about to order that man beamed as well, but at the pace things were going the ship would become overcrowded before getting any meaningful answer. He paced up and down thinking what his next move in this incredibly screwed up situation should be.

"I'm going to the sickbay to see our guest. In the meantime captain, you come up with a viable plan for a few of our teams to storm that facility. I had enough with this people," Jack told the captain storming out of the bridge immediately after. He walked down the corridors of the Odyssey toward the sickbay, thinking on how to best approach the man in there and finally get some answers. When he entered the sickbay, he saw that the Chancellor had already regained consciousness and he didn't look as anxious as he did before. It was probably because the doctor slipped him some antianxiety pills that would make a man keep his smile even if they told him he was about to die. His suspicions were confirmed by the doctor who explained how he almost fainted once again after regaining consciousness, so he had to give him something. It was a good thing too that the Chancellor was now drugged to his ears. It would make Jack's job much easier.

Jack approached the man's bed and without waiting he began, "Chancellor, I see you are feeling much better now."

The man looked at Jack as if he was stoned, "Yes-yes, I'm feeling much better now. What can I do for you young man?"

'_Young man?' _Jack thought. The stuff the doctor gave him must be really great. Jack made a mental note to ask the doctor what he gave him and maybe score something as well, "As I've already asked you before, I just want to know where my people are, that's all?"

"Ah, yes-yes, your people… they are aliens you know," the man whispered to Jack as if he was telling him a big secret.

"Yes, I know. So, where are they right now?"

"Oh, they are being kept in a facility in the north side of the city."

"So, they are not dead?"

"Nooooo, of course not!"

"Why were you stalling the negotiations then?"

"We were afraid because… you know they are alien right?" the man started to answer but then wandered a little.

"Yes, I know. Why were you afraid?"

"Because the people that interrogated them were a little ruff with them and we were afraid how you would react."

"Oh well, you shouldn't worry about that. They get beat up on every other mission they go, so…" Jack explained. "…can we agree to get our people back?"

"I don't know. The aliens could be very angry at us if they find out what we did." The man replied not even realizing he was actually talking to one of the aliens. "You must know that I would never give such an order. To use such methods in an interrogation is barbaric."

Jack didn't know if the man can be of any more help, and he would have to return back to normal before they could discuss the matter any further, "Alright, I can see that you need some rest. We will talk later a little more."

"No problem, come see me any time you like."

Jack stormed out of the sickbay with the information he hoped would finally end this whole thing. He entered the bridge and saw Emerson already talking to the same man as before.

"…we demand the safe return of our Chancellor immediately." The man on the display said.

Emerson, seeing how Jack had just entered the bridge, decided to wait for him to continue. Jack picked up on Emerson immediately, "I think we can finally come to a satisfactory agreement here. Your Chancellor told us everything that happened and in contrast to what you did we didn't torture him for the information," Jack said, letting it sink in the man's skull that he knew what they had done. "So I'm proposing the following. Our doctor will release your Chancellor in half an hour or so. He just wants to make sure he is completely healthy before that. We will then return him back to you and you will do the same with our people."

The man on the other side thought about it. Since they knew what they did there was no reason to hide anything anymore, "Would it be… repercussions?"

"No, there won't be any repercussions. We are not happy about what you did, but we are prepared to overlook what happened for the safe return of our people and as a sign of good will from our part so that, maybe one day, we can take the relationship between our two peoples to the next level," Jack explained, trying to sound as sincere as possible.

"Very well. When the Chancellor is returned to us we will release your people. I'm sure you have the capabilities to do the rest once you know where they are."

"Yes, it won't be a problem. We would also like for their equipment to be returned to them. That would also show _your_ good will in this whole situation."

Jack asked and the military man on the other side reluctantly agreed to the terms. An hour later, the Chancellor was beamed back to the same spot he had been previously taken from and a few minutes later the SG-1 was brought on the upper levels of the facility they were in, in the same room where the MALP and the rest of their stuff were. The moment the Odyssey picked up their signal they were beamed up to the bridge in front of Jack. They did look a little beaten up and definitely tired, but otherwise in one piece.

"Jack, you are here?" Daniel was the first to say something.

"Daniel, this was your last mission and I mean it."

"Jack."

Jack didn't want to hear any of it. He had enough excitement for one day. He turned and left the bridge directed to his quarters where he would spend the rest of the trip in peace, but first he wanted to pay a visit to the good doctor and try to score a few of those happy pills the Chancellor got.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aboard Liam's ship**

The Aschen Confederation was comprised of four planets. Three of them were used for farming and the fourth was their capital planet Aschen. The three planets had probably been inhabited by three distinct races until the Aschen came and offered them long life and prosperity, but it came with a price. The Golden Age for these races, unaware of the Aschen real intentions, lasted for the next hundred and fifty years in which time their entire populations slowly died out. Without the ability to have children, those races were doomed from the moment they accepted the Aschen's help. Once the population dropped to less than 0.1 percent of the initial population, the Aschen would miraculously came up with a cure for the disease that struck them, curing the remaining people on the planet so they could fulfill another task that the Aschen needed from them. In the end, the remaining population would think of the Aschen as heroes, who saved them from complete extinction, and they would begin to work for them as farmers in order to provide the Aschen with the ever increasing need for food.

Liam believed that nature had royally screwed up this time. The Aschen evolutionary path had taken a wrong turn and made them ruthless and uncaring toward others. It wasn't uncommon for a race or nation to place their own needs before the needs of others, but usually they would never go to such extremes as to commit near genocide and even then the public would be unaware of what their government did and if they eventually found out, they would be outraged by such acts. Opposed to most civilizations, in the Aschen case the entire population was aware of what they did and they were unmoved by it. They needed food and in their minds genocide of another less advanced race in order to exploit their planet was as good a solution as any. That way of thinking of an entire race made Liam believe that nature definitely messed up this time.

Their lack of humor was also a symptom indicating a much larger problem. Without humor there was a clear indication that other emotions were missing as well. The lack of empathy was also a trade of sociopaths and the thought of an entire planet full of such people scarred Liam greatly. If ever came the time when they would need to fight the Aschen, and Liam believed it was inevitable, the question that troubled Liam the most was – 'What to do with them?'

Victory wouldn't be possible by simply beating the crap out of them and by showing them how wrong their ways were. It was in their genes, in the genes of an entire planet to behave like they did and there was no satisfactory solution to that problem. To make things worse, Liam thought this was the worst time to think about having to fight yet another foe. They already had their hands full in all three galaxies. The Ori, Goa'uld, Wraith and Senari were already too much to even think about having to fight a fifth enemy. The only positive side to the Aschen predicament was that they were isolated, at least for the moment. They didn't have any outside gate address to spread further into the galaxy, which they would have done in a heartbeat if they could and as far as he knew, their hyperdrive technology was nonexistent or at least at the beginnings where traveling more than a few hundred light years would take them a lifetime. But all this would eventually change. They would find a way to dial another gate in the galaxy or develop hyperdrives fast enough to reach other planets the other way.

Liam had already updated the three planets where there was nothing else than farms. It wasn't difficult. He would beam the gate to his ship, change it, and beam it back where he found it, all in less than ten minutes. He would take the gate when no one would notice his sudden disappearance and he was more than certain no one had in all three cases. The only planet that remained was Aschen Prime and Liam was impatient to see what the planet was all about.

Liam exited hyperspace at the outskirts of the Aschen system and cloaked his ship immediately. He slowly pushed his ship toward the third planet in the system that his sensors were telling him was the only one inhabited. He traveled slowly because he knew the Aschen were after all a very advanced race and the fact they didn't have hyperdrive technology at their disposal, it didn't mean their sensors weren't sophisticated enough to detect the emissions made by his ship powerful sublight engines. It took him an hour to reach his intended target and when he arrived he was awestruck by what he saw. The planet was literally covered with people. He estimated there were almost fifteen billion souls on the planet and the planet was even smaller than Earth was. At that moment, one question struck Liam as a hammer leaving him wondering. Why didn't the Aschen spread to the other planets in their so called Confederation? The other three planets were practically lifeless compared to the total population that inhabited Aschen Prime. Still, the people here didn't move to those planets, instead deciding to stay here squeezed like packed sardines. Something else also took Liam's attention. There was a large crater of about three hundred miles in diameter on the planet and his sensors were giving him some really strange readings. There was no radiation or anything else that would indicate they were victims of some kind of attack. Liam also excluded natural phenomena like volcanic activity, earthquake or an asteroid impact as the cause. If an asteroid had hit the planet, there would be so much debris in the air that the entire planet would have become uninhabitable. Then he remembered the reports he read from the time the SGC encountered the Aschen and how they gave them an address of a planet that was near a black hole. The damage the planet sustained was consistent with strong gravimetric distortions sucking up everything through the gate, and without the DHD's built in safeties, the gate wouldn't shut down for the full 38 minutes. Also he would have to consider the time distortion, so that the 38 minutes should have lasted much longer, at least from a stand point of the people on the planet.

Liam had already detected the gate on the planet's surface when he noticed something that was previously hidden from him on the other side. There were several massive installations in orbit and after a little more of scanning he was able to understand what they were. Those were shipyards and there were lots of them. There was also a large fleet close by comprised of many different types of ships. Scans showed the ships were powered down and they were also missing something. Not even one of them had a hyperdrive, something that made Liam even more curious. It took him a while to understand what the Aschen were trying to do. They were building a lot of ships while at the same time researching hyperdrive technology. Once they would finish with their research the only thing they would need to do to have a fleet ready would be to build the hyperdrives and install them in the already built ships. Looking at the crater on the planet and the dozens of ships clearly having been built for war, Liam understood for what purpose they were building so many. They were preparing to wage war against the Terrans for what they did to them and probably because they knew what the Aschen were all about. It was the most probable explanation to what he was seeing.

The planet was also well defended, with orbiting weapon's platforms all around it. His scans showed it wouldn't be easy to attack such formidable defenses and live to tell about it afterwards. Another problem was that he was certain the moment he would have beamed up the gate to change his inner workings their sensors would detect the energy surge and find the location of his ship. It didn't matter. He had to upgrade the gate even if it meant being discovered. He positioned his ship above the gate and beamed it in the cargo hold where he was already waiting. He started working on the gate while William was moving the ship in an erratic fashion in case they were successful in pinpointing his location. He needed ten minutes of uninterrupted work before he could beam the gate back.

William approached Liam with a thoughtful expression, a sign he was checking his sensors, "Liam, there is a lot of satellites converging on our position and they all have very sophisticated sensors. I don't know if I can stay in orbit for another ten minutes without being detected."

"Then don't," Liam replied while continuing to work on the gate.

"Care to explain what you mean by that?"

"I mean you don't have to stay in orbit."

"You won't be able to beam the gate back if we leave orbit."

"Then I won't be able, so what? They already know somebody took the gate and I don't see any reason why I can't just beam the gate in space once I'm done."

"That has some logic to it. Alright, I'm taking us away from the planet."

The ship turned while still invisible and pushed away from the planet. Suddenly one of the weapon platforms fired a bolt of what appeared to be concentrated energy toward Liam's ship. The bolt went wide, missing the ship by a large margin as if the Aschen were firing blindly. Then another platform fired as well and the bolt hit Liam's ship on his starboard side, the energy cracking in all directions from where it hit the massive ship. It also made the ship visible again.

Liam felt the slight tremor, the result of the weapons impact on his ship, "What was that?"

"They fired some kind of energy weapon at us. We've been detected."

"Any damage to the ship?" Liam asked while still working on the gate.

"No, no damage. I'm switching from cloak to shields," William replied.

Liam smiled while still continuing his work on the gate, "I knew there was a reason why I have spent twenty years building the ship's armor plating."

It was true. The long time it took to build the ship was mostly because of the material Liam used to build it. It was almost indestructible and also capable of dissipating most forms of energy when hit. That was also the reason why it took twenty years to make the material for the ship's hull. The process involved was incredibly difficult, energy intensive and time consuming that Liam believed he would never build a second ship like this one.

Once the shields were up, the ship was clearly visible to the Aschen who turned more weapon platforms towards it. They fired two more times before the massive, but also incredibly fast ship, made it out of their weapons range. The two energy bolts managed to reach it, harmlessly hitting the ships shields.

"Okay, I'm done with the modifications. Beam the gate wherever you won't in space, I don't really care. Then take us out of here."

William beamed the gate a few hundred miles behind the ship and opened a hyperspace window and the ship went through it only a second later. Their job was done in the Aschen territory and he also gathered some valuable intel the Terrans would want to hear. He would go to Earth immediately after a short visit to the Nox who wanted to speak with him for some reason and he needed to update their gate anyway so the trip there would be well spent.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

The Odyssey had returned home a few hours ago and Jack and the extended SG-1 team were already back on the island below. Business was as usual, with the team taking a short break, Teal'c having enough excitement for now and deciding to return to Dakara, and Jack and Daniel having another Council meeting on their plate. Jack calmed down a little after the rescue mission in which, on many occasions, he thought Daniel was dead because of the erratic behavior of the people there. When they didn't want to give him an answer, he really believed they were stalling because somebody died and they didn't know what to say or do after being challenged by a warship in orbit. Thankfully, the thing they were hiding was the fact that they used some not very civilized methods of interrogations which was bad, but still much better than what went through Jack's head at that moment. Nevertheless, he was more than adamant this had been the last mission Daniel would go ever again and no matter how much nagging he would have to hear from him, he wouldn't let him go on another mission.

The council meeting they had to attend was the most important meeting of the month. It was today that they would go through everything that happened in the last month and they would also need to decide what the next batch of technologies they were going to give to Earth would be.

Paul and Sam were comparing notes while the rest of the council was slowly pouring in the room and taking their seats. Once everybody was seated, Jack waited for another minute or so before officially declaring the council in session.

"Alright, are we all seated and ready to begin?" Jack asked and after seeing everybody nodding, he continued, "Good. Let's begin with the main reason for us to be here. What are we going to give to Earth this month?"

Dmitri wasn't the one directly responsible for this, Paul was, but he decided to say something before him, "I have something to say that I think is pertinent to the matter at hand. I have monitored how Earth is faring from the time we began giving them new tech until now. The global economy is suffering and there is no easy way to say it, but I think we are directly responsible."

Paul, who was the one mostly responsible for making the list of technologies they were giving Earth looked at Dmitri in puzzlement, "What do you mean?"

"Earth's global economy is going down the drain and the reason why is because nobody is investing in anything and we can't blame them either. Imagine some of the largest companies having to decide if they want to invest billions of dollars into, let's say, the next generation of processors. Why would they do it if they can expect us to just put something ten generations ahead of whatever they develop the next month? And not only that. The big companies are also losing ground because when we give them some new revolutionary technology nobody holds a patent to it and everybody can just start producing the new products. The global market is also taking a hit. Nobody wants to buy large quantities of… anything and that's because they fear the next month something new and much better will surface, completely pushing the current products into becoming obsolete. If we continue this way, we are going to do more harm than good, I can assure you of that." Dmitri explained.

"We realize the situation is not perfect, but what can we do?" Paul asked Dmitri.

"I thought about that and I think I have a solution to the problem. What Earth needs is assurance that our next delivery won't toss their current products into oblivion, and also they need certainty that if they invest in something, they want regret it the next month or even after a year."

Paul understood what Dmitri was saying, "You think we should make a long term plan of what we are going to give them so they know in advance what to expect?"

"Yes, but not only that. We need to give them a list of what we are going to release in the next five years and we also need to change what we are giving them. Instead of giving them the end product that they only need to start producing, we need to give them the basic theory behind it and leave corporations develop something from it. This way the companies will still have to invest into their R&D before the product hits the market, which will increase instead of diminish the number of jobs, and if they know we won't put anything new in the same area for the next five years, they have the guarantee they need that the money they'll spend on research won't go wasted," Dmitri explained.

"So you are saying that instead of giving them already developed crystal based chips, we give them the theory behind it and leave them develop their own chips and improve from the basic idea. Isn't this a little redundant? I mean, we already had to develop the chips for our own use. If we give them just the basics, they will have to repeat the same work our scientists have already done," Sam asked.

"That's true, but that's the way Earth's economy worked so far, isn't it. Think about it. Companies that research and develop something new do the same job as their competition does. It would be much more efficient if only one research project is working on a new technology at one time, but that would mean less people having jobs and also monopoly of the end product. We must find a way to introduce new knowledge on Earth and let them develop whatever they want with it instead of giving them just the end product to put on shelves," Dmitri explained.

"It makes sense, but how much would this slow down Earth's development?" Paul asked.

"And we must also consider if the governments will be onboard with this," Sam contributed.

"I think they will. After all, it is in their best interest to bring their economy back up and I think that we can compensate for Earth's slower development if we just give them more. I mean we give them more knowledge to work on and in a few years they will achieve the same result if we have given them just the end products, but from a smaller pot," Dmitri explained.

"Alright, I think this could work, but there is also another big problem. For this to work we have to make a list of everything we are going to give to Earth in the next five years or maybe even ten, which is not something easily done. We don't know where we are going to be in ten years, we don't know where or what we will develop next year for that matter." Sam asked.

"It's true, you and Paul will have a lot more work in the next few months to come up with the list, but I think we don't have to worry about where we will be in five or ten years because we are not giving to Earth the latest of what we develop in the first place and I also think that after this few months spent to come up with the list, you and Paul will have a much easier job afterward. After you come up with the list, you won't have to worry anymore what you are going to give them next month. In the long run I think your job will be much easier and Earth's economy will return back as it was before, just with new technologies and knowledge in her pocket."

"Alright, I think we discussed this for long enough. Who thinks this is a good idea, raise a hand," Jack said wanting to move on before the day ends.

It was unanimous, "Good we will try it then. We will also cancel this batch we were planning to give to Earth and come up with a full list for the next five years. I think ten years is too much and we can always extend the five-year plan later," Jack said.

The plan was approved even though Sam and Paul glanced at each other knowing full well how much more work that meant for them and they didn't like it, but Dmitri's idea was sound and there was nothing they could think of why not to do it. Now they only needed to sell it to the representatives that most certainly would think they are trying to stall the next release instead of trying to help the planet's economy to grow.

The council continued discussing other matters that they had on their schedule, only briefly mentioning the precarious situation the rest of their planet was currently in. They weren't responsible for the state of affairs on Earth, but that didn't mean they didn't have to worry about it. The conversation then switched to the mission the TIA was performing on Earth, a clear breach of the treaty they'd signed, but also something they knew it had to be done. A rogue organization was attacking them and they had to do something about it. Klaus, the one in charge of the black op mission, explained where the mission was at the moment. He explained how currently several teams were following the people who contacted Kavanagh with the task of gathering intel. Their task was to find out who else was involved in the rogue organization since the people who contacted Kavanagh were only pawns in a much larger organization. They had already been able to find a few more people in the organization and place a few more teams to watch them as well. A few of them were not simple thugs like those that contacted Kavanagh, but politicians and businessmen all around the planet. That startled the council a lot. The idea that influential people from several countries were involved in this was more than they thought they would find at the beginning and there was also one name that troubled Jack greatly.

Kinsey had been a pain in the ass for several years in the past while Jack was still part of the SGC and it looked like he remained a pain in the ass even in the present. He resigned from being vice President after Hayes told him to, but the man was relentless and he was already climbing back in politics. He was again a senator with a lot of support and Jack thought the man was probably thinking of going for the presidency on the next elections only a year and a half away. If he achieved that goal it could be catastrophic for the entire planet.

Another fact troubled Jack and the rest of the council. The investigation showed that the conspiracy had ties even outside the countries who signed the Terran Alliance treaty. Precisely it was the countries in the Middle East and China that troubled them the most because it meant even more trouble from them than anticipated. He knew that people from China would be in this only if they had some assurance that this would give them something in return. That was also true for the people from the Middle East where their only concern was the oil business. Connecting the dots with Kinsey probably going for the presidency and with the people from Middle East and China, it gave a picture that nobody liked very much. He knew they had to stop this if they wanted for things to stay the way they were now. Even more now that they were close to signing the Alliance with the Asgard and Liam and they would not like the fact that in the near future the Terran Alliance could face the possibility of being run by those people.

Once they found the full extent of the rogue organization they were fighting, they would need to make a difficult choice. Would they give the intel they collected to the various governments in the hope they would act and stop the rogue organization for them, or would they take their little black op on Earth to a whole new level, taking care of those people by themselves. There was also the fact that China, with the help of North Korea was furthering their space program and there were some indications they would have at least one ship capable of traveling to other planets in the next six months. Nobody liked that fact very much and they were already planning for a few contingency plans if it came to that. Klaus also told the Council that he had intimate knowledge the US was already planning to sabotage China's program and they all knew how bad that could end up to be. China would blame the countries who signed the Terran Alliance treaty even if they didn't have any proof or, even worse, they would directly blame the Terrans. In both cases Jack didn't like the result.

The council decided to change the subject and go on with the scheduled list of topics they had to discuss. The next topic was the Second Great Alliance, with only a few months from being formally signed. The signing was going to happen on Tantalus where Liam's people, with the help of the Asgard, had already started building the meeting place for the four races. It was much more than the simple castle that had served as the meeting place for the First Great Alliance. Now, it was going to be a place with a much larger complex. There were also other concerns they had to take into account. When the first alliance was formed, the galaxy was void of any other race capable of traveling the starts. Now that wasn't the case, and the main problem was that those who now were capable of space flight were also hostile. As a result, the planet had to be properly defended from those who would stumble upon it with ill intentions. They also decided that all four members would give their architectural ideas on how the complex should be built. It made some problem in building the place, mostly because the Nox didn't share the usual understanding of how a complex should be built. They liked to live in the woods after all, no matter how advanced they actually were. The complex already looked very strange with four different philosophies put into its building blocks. The greatest difference was between what the Asgard wanted it to look like and what the Nox expected. The Guardians and the Terrans had more or less the same idea on what it should look like, and it was something in between the other two races. The end result was a complex with the Nox section on one end and the Asgard section on the other with the middle section connecting the two extremities made by the Terrans and Guardians. In a way, the complex would start from being intervened with trees and other plants on the Nox side to gradually end up in the Asgard's metallic and sterile shapes on the other end. Liam and Jack thought they got the best part in the middle since they didn't mind having trees and plants nor a fully technological look like the Asgard did.

In the middle of the three miles large complex was the main chamber where the four races would meet. It was also located in the tallest building in the entire complex, also a pain in the ass to design since it had to incorporate distinct features from all four races.

Jack listened to all of this being discussed and only sporadically saying something, more to move the conversation along than giving any real contribution to the conversation. They had finally entered into the last part of the meeting and also the only one Jack actually wanted to hear about in the entire three hours long meeting they had so far. The topic that remained to discuss was pertinent to Jack's department. It would determine the progress they'd made and his next budget.

"Carter, what do you have for me?" Jack asked eagerly.

Sam smiled. She knew him to well. This was the only thing that Jack wanted to know and he'd probably eaten half his liver in the previous three hours waiting for this moment. "The shipyards in the Pegasus galaxy have been working nonstop for the past few months in an attempt to upgrade the auroras with…" she paused while looking straight at Jack, "… big guns like Jack wanted and I can proudly say that the engineers just finished upgrading the last ship."

She smiled as she saw Jack almost starting to jump up and down in utter joy at the news. On the left side she also saw Daniel shaking his head after seeing Jack's reaction, probably reconsidering the remark he'd made while speaking to Sam a few days ago on how he thought Jack was finally growing up. Sam told him he must have imagined it and that she would prove it on the next big meeting they would have, "Daniel, you owe me twenty bucks."

Jack smiled, hesitating for a moment while trying to understand why Daniel owed Sam money and why she told him that just now in the middle of the meeting. He had the clear impression it had something to do with him, although he didn't know what exactly. It didn't matter. Right now he didn't care too much. He turned back to Sam expectantly, "So, tell me, what else?"

While Sam was preparing to continue, Daniel's head slumped on the table in disappointment. "The other two shipyards are nearing the BS-305's to completion. It will take only two weeks longer before the ships are ready for their shakedown voyage. On the other hand, here on Terrania we have a much bigger problem upgrading the three Auroras we have here. Since the shipyards are too small for the Auroras to fit in, we have to do it in the open and it hasn't been easy." Sam said, pausing after seeing Jack's disappointing expression, but there wasn't anything they could do to speed up the process. The upgrade process consisted of placing four large cannons and dozens of smaller plasma turrets on the ships exterior and without the help of the advanced machineries inside the shipyards the process was slow and difficult. They also needed to upgrade the Naquadah reactors to increase the power output considerably in order to have sufficient energy to power up so many guns. Thankfully, they didn't need to replace the entire reactors because it would be an almost impossible job to do outside a shipyard. Instead, they only needed to change a few things so that the reactors could work with the Naquadah/Naquadria mixed rods that would produce a much more powerful nuclear reaction. For that, they needed only to change the cooling system of the reactor and the power conduits so that they could keep up with the not so negligible increase in power output.

Jack sad expression didn't last for long, since it wasn't such a bad news and it also wasn't news to him in the first place. He knew they would have much more trouble upgrading those ships here.

Sam decided to give him one more good news to cheer him up again, "Even though only one ship has been upgraded so far, we were also able to build three more Daedalus class ships in that time since the shipyards weren't used for the auroras refit. Well, that is all that concerns ships construction. The other thing we need to discuss is the equipment we need to start producing in the Pegasus galaxy and here. Jack, did you look at the document I've sent you?"

"I did," Jack replied.

At that moment Daniel raised his head from the table and looked straight at Sam. Sam on the other hand didn't know what to say. She was sure he would never read any document that had more than one page, and the one she'd sent him was more than fifty pages long. The entire council was now looking at Jack with puzzlement and while a few of them remained silent, most of them asked the same question in unison, "You did?"

Jack was startled by hearing so many council members asking the same question at the same time, not knowing what was actually happening right now. "Yeah," Jack answered with uncertainty at the group of people staring at him.

Sam wasn't convinced. He could have said it even though he didn't read it. She decided to play it cool, "Alright, what do you think?"

Jack was still looking around sensing that for some reason he had become the center of attention, "Well, I like it," Jack said without going into details. That gave Sam the proof she needed that Jack didn't read the document after all, but before she could say anything Jack continued, "At least most of it. I think we should allocate more than ten percent of our resources into producing the equipment our soldiers are using and fewer resources into manufacturing armored vehicles, at least for now. We've spent two years with our soldiers going around the galaxy and ten years before that in the Stargate program and we needed armored units only a few times in all that time. I think we should focus on producing as much combat armor and as many of the new TR-X1 rifles as possible. I think thirty five percent will be a good start. When we build enough of those we can start building more of the other staff you put in the report."

The document contained a complete list of products for the ground forces, and Jack really liked reading it. The TR-X1 was the first Terran rifle they had designed and in time it would replace the standard P90 rifle that they still had to buy from Earth. The TR-X1 wasn't an energy based weapon as somebody would believe it would be their first rifle. Plasma weapons in general had two major drawbacks that the Terrans didn't know how to solve. Their accuracy was awful and their fire rate couldn't be even compared to that of the P90. These two little problems made the research team decide to go with the standard bullet spitting rifle, but in no case the TR-X1 could be compared to Earth's made rifles. The TR-X1 had a small inertial dampener installed inside, making the rifle have almost no recoil when fired and the firing pin and reloading mechanism were moved by a magnetic system that gave the rifle a thirty percent greater fire rate than the P90, which wasn't easy to achieve. Because of it, the rifle needed a power source in order to work. A small energy crystal was placed in the back of the rifle and it was capable of powering the rifle for more than 2000 rounds, which was more than enough and even if it wasn't, the crystal was easily replaceable. The ammunition was also different. The gunpowder used in the bullets was a completely new formula that gave almost twice the explosive power of regular gunpowder. Because of it, the 7.62 mm bullet with a tip made of a mix of Naquadah and tungsten was capable of achieving even greater speed than normal bullets even though it was much heavier. The result was a bullet with almost four times more stopping power than what the standard bullets had and it could pierce the Jaffa or Wraith armor with ease. Combined with the incredible accuracy because there was almost no recoil, and the incredible fire rate, the rifle was capable of cutting down several opponents in a very short time. The rifle was longer than the P90 by about 10 centimeters and it was a little bulkier, but with the use of a mixed material composed of trinium and carbon, the rifle was even a little lighter than the P90.

The TP-X1 was the first Terran pistol they'd designed, but Jack felt it wasn't critical to start producing them since it was almost the same as the standard 9mm they used so far. The only differences were the bullets and a little sturdier frame that was needed because of the stronger firepower the bullets have. The next thing Jack wanted to start producing as soon as possible was the combat armor for the troops. The combat armor was made of several pieces with the user being able to decide what he would wear. The chest and shoulder piece was mandatory as the most important part of the armor. The new material made of several layers of trinium and carbon plating and a strange material that showed anti-Newtonian properties, made the armor capable of stopping several plasma blasts and the produced heat from reaching the body underneath. The anti-Newtonian material, with the property of being tougher when hit by fast moving objects made the armor incredibly resistant, but at the same time capable of deforming when the wearer would move. The armor also had the ability to at least partially stop any stun weapon they knew about, namely the Zat gun, Wraith stunner and also Ronon personal weapon. In addition, there was several other pieces that if put all together would cover most of the wearer's body. The helmet was made of a transparent material on the front side, capable of taking a .50 caliber bullet without breaking. Of course, there was the problem a 50 caliber bullet traveling at three times the speed of sound would break the wearer's neck on impact and because of it, the helmet had a reinforced back that can be attached to the central armor piece. That way the force of the bullet would be transferred to the rest of the armor, preventing the head from snapping back, resulting in the neck being broken.

Another thing in the document intrigued Jack greatly. It was the design of their new tank. Taking the current design of the Abrams tank, the research team came up with incredible advancement that in the end made the tank look completely different from the Abrams. The Armor plating was made with the same material as their spaceships were with just a little less trinium in it. Trinium was most appreciated when you needed something tough but at the same time light and since nobody cared how heavy the TT-X1 was since it had a Naquadah generator capable of feeding the main electric engine of almost 3000 KW with ease. The generator would also fed the power hungry plasma weapons that worked in conjunction with the 120 mm cannon. The plasma weapons made the Al'kesh's plasma cannon look like a toy in comparison. The central cannon also changed since now it was a railgun system with a bullet with an explosive tip.

Unfortunately the tank didn't have a shield to protect it because the research team still had trouble making shields work on movable objects on the ground. The ground would interfere with the shield generator's intention to create a perfect sphere around the tank. It wasn't too bad when the tank would not move, but when it did and especially when it touched something in his path, the shield just reacted, in many cases resulting in the shield generator overloading. Because of it, the research team decided to concentrate more on the armor and leave the shield for the next generation of tanks. The tank's armor plating was capable of taking countless hits from an Al'kesh plasma cannon and still leave the tank combat capable, which was enough for the research team. This was also one of the reasons Jack wanted to focus their resources on building other things rather than the tanks. They didn't need them right now and he expected the research team to, sooner or later, come up with the TT-X2 that was going to have a shield and probably other improvements as well.

There were many other items in the long list Sam gave him and Jack wanted them all, but for now he thought the most important thing was to build the TCA-X1 combat armors and the TR-X1 rifles that would make their teams who were in constant peril on alien planets feel much safer. The Ori were now sending soldiers with their Priors, the Wraith were always lurking behind the next rock and there was always some trigger happy moron who would shoot first and ask questions later to worry about.

Sam's jaw dropped almost touching the floor after hearing Jack's response. He did read it after all, "Yeah… yeah, it sounds good."

Daniel on the other hand had a mischievous smile plastered all over his face, "You owe me twenty."

Jack again had the clear impression the money exchange between Sam and Daniel had something to do with him, but he still couldn't grasp what it was and he thought he knew the reason why. He was hungry, and when he's hungry he can't think straight. He had to make this meeting end somehow, "Carter, is that all?"

"Yeah, yeah pretty much. I mean, if you read the entire document, I have nothing else to show you."

"Okay then. Since this was the last thing we had to discuss on today's schedule, I think we can end this meeting now," Jack said and everybody nodded in agreement, "We will see each other in three days' time. This meeting is adjourned."

They all moved outside the council's chamber, everybody going in different direction to continue with their usual work, of course except Jack who hurried to grab something to eat in the mess hall, or at least that was his intention. He wasn't even half way there when he was beamed aboard Liam's ship. He made at least a few more steps before understanding where he was.

He turned toward Liam with a pissed off expression, "You must be clairvoyant, aren't you?"

Liam was stunned by Jack's half question half accusation. How did he know? "What are you referring to?"

"You must know in advance when I'm going to eat something because every time I do, you beam me up to your ship."

Liam was at the same time relieved and amused by Jack's words. "Come on, let's go grab something to eat," Liam replied while chuckling at Jack's explanation.

They used the internal teleporters to reach the ship's small mess hall where Liam and Jack used some Star Trek type replicator to make their food. It was Jack's dream coming true. A machine that gives you whatever you want to eat was Jack's definition of being in heaven. Both of them sat on one of the tables somewhere in the middle of the room.

"I just finished updating the gates on the Aschen planets," Liam said.

"That was fast."

"It wasn't that difficult, except maybe for a little trouble on their homeworld."

"What happened?" Jack asked curiously.

"Nothing serious, but I can tell you, you made quite the _impact _on them."

"We did? In which way?"

"In the form of a three hundred miles crater on their homeworld," Liam stated evenly.

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked a little confused.

"You remember how you gave the Aschen the coordinates of a planet with a black hole near it?" Liam asked Jack, expecting he would connect two and two.

"Oh, they dial it? Good!"

"Well, they are pretty pissed at you right now."

"How do you mean pissed?"

"Well, from what I've seen there, they are building a pretty big fleet. They already have dozens of warships in orbit."

Jack was depresses and angry at the same time, "Oh come on. How many more enemies with warships can we make?"

Liam chuckled, "That's true. I never thought I would have to worry about so many races at the same time. But there is a positive side from what I saw there."

Jack didn't know what could possibly be construed as a positive side in this whole story, "Which is?"

"Their ships don't have hyperdrives at the moment."

"What are they going to do with ships without hyperdrives? They are useless."

"On the contrary, they are very smart. They are building those ships in anticipation when they'll develop viable hyperdrive technology, but, except for a miracle, it will take them a lot of time to come up with something that can make their ships cross the distance between their planet and yours in any meaningful amount of time."

"I don't know, a lot of races have hyperdrive technology at their disposal. How difficult can it be to come up with that level of tech then?"

"Very. It took thousands of years for my race to come up with the hyperdrive technology, and that was after we were already traveling the stars. Even the Asgard didn't come up with the technology on their own. Only after we gave them a prototype they were able to make hyperspace capable ships and to eventually improve them."

"Wait, how were you traveling the stars without hyperdrives on ships?"

"There are other ways to travel through space at FTL speeds that does not require hyperspace, but they are much less efficient."

"What about the Goa'uld then? They are not the smartest bunch, but they still have hyperdrives."

"You must understand that the Goa'uld are parasites and scavengers. They have hyperdrives because they found some remaining technology that we've left when we went to the Pegasus galaxy. The plague that killed so many of us swept the entire galaxy so fast that we didn't have the time to go around and pick up every piece of technology we ever built, and the Goa'uld took advantage of it. If they didn't find them, they would probably still be limited by the gate network."

"That's true. They never improved much on their hyperdrives. Somebody would believe in the thousands of years they traveled the stars they would come up with faster engines, but they didn't." Jack said, but then he remembered something else. "Wait! What about the Tollans? They didn't _steal _the tech; they come up with it on their own."

"It's true, but tell me, how fast their ships were?"

"Slow, even slower than what the Goa'uld have."

"I told you, hyperdrive technology is incredibly difficult to understand, and that is also the reason why it is very important the intergalactic hyperdrive the Asgard gave you remains a secret."

"No worries there. The thought of that falling in the Wraith's hands gives me chills."

"And the more races know about it, more the chances it spreads to the Wraith or other unwanted races. The only race except us that has that kind of knowledge are the Ori, the Nox and the Asgard. No other race is even close to developing an intergalactic hyperdrive and I think it will take a lot of time and effort for the Aschen to come up with something that can cross 70,000 light years to reach your planet in any reasonable amount of time."

"So you think that we are safe for now and that we don't have to worry about them at the moment?"

"I think so. The only thing that can speed up their progress is if they manage to gate to another planet and gain more addresses. If they do, sooner or later, they will stumble across at least a Tel'tak and reverse engineer his engines. I think is best we focus on the current threats and once we've dealt with them, we will have no problem in dealing with the Aschen as well. After all, they are nothing compared to the Ori coming here, the Wraith in Pegasus, or the Senari in the Andromeda galaxy," Liam said even though his thoughts wondered to the mysterious race he saw in his dream. He was planning on informing the Asgard and the Terrans about them, but right now he didn't want to burden them with something he only saw in a dream.

They slowly changed the discussion to other matters, in the meantime finishing their main course and starting to eat their desert.

They were eating in peace when Jack suddenly stopped eating remembering something. "They were betting on me!"

Liam was a little startled by the sudden statement, "Who?"

Jack stayed in silence looking a little pissed before answering, "Daniel and Sam. They were betting if I read the document she sent me."

"So, who won?"

"Daniel."

"Strange? I would have never thought Sam would have bet on you having read anything."

Jack was now a little pissed at Liam's insinuation, "She didn't."

"Really? So… you read it?"

"Yeah!"

"How long it was?"

"Fifty pages."

"…were there guns in it?"

"How do you know that?"

"Ah well, that explains it."

"Explains what?"

"Well, that's obvious isn't it?"

"No, it isn't."

"…"

"What?"

"Are you sure you read it? I mean… it's fifty pages."

"…"

"Alright, if you say so."

* * *

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	8. Chapter 8: To Boldly Go Where

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asuran Planet**

The new Terran ship slowly rose through the planet's atmosphere, passing through layers of clouds directed on his first voyage into space. It was the first BS-305 to leave the docks and there was great expectation for the ship. He had been designed to be a Wraith killer, capable of taking down several hives at once or as the first line of defense against anything the Ori would decide to bring in this region of space. The ship was packed with so many guns that if they all fired at the same time it would be like looking at an over embellished Christmas tree. The four massive plasma cannons where the spear of the ship, capable of destroying a hive ship in minutes, or at least that was what the engineers who'd worked on the ship had assured they would do. There was also scores of plasma turrets capable of destroying smaller ships with ease, and if they would concentrate all of their firepower, even larger ship would feel their wrath. With the auroras having been upgraded with energy weapons and the drones finally filling the Terrans reserve depots, there was no reason why not to add a couple of thousand drones and a few launchers to the battleship. The ship had also the Mark II railguns that were a little bigger than its predecessor and they were capable of firing slugs at almost fifty percent higher velocity. The result was an increase of almost five times in the amount of kinetic energy the new bullets would deliver. Even with the new plasma turrets installed, the Terrans believed the railguns would be the most effective weapon against swarms of darts as no other weapon could match their incredible fire rate. The last offensive feature of the new ship were the Mark VII and Mark IX nuclear missiles, all upgraded with the latest propulsion technology that made them much faster and more maneuverable. Their internal processing unit was also changed, giving the missiles a greater chance of finding the best approach vector and also to enact much more sophisticated evasive actions that would evade most of the incoming fire. The missiles external hull was made with new materials that, although more expensive, gave the missile the ability to survive a low strength hit from a plasma cannon, which was very important when fighting the wraith. If the darts had a much lower chance of destroying the incoming missiles, the hives would be in serious trouble.

The ship wasn't a marvel only because of his weapons, he was also much better defended with his much stronger shields and with the armor made of a stronger material. The two hyperdrives were capable of pushing the ship to cross the distance between the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxy in half the time of the Daedalus. They were the crown jewels of the engineers work.

There was of course one negative side to the ship and that was his price. The ship's length was double that of the Daedalus and, since the mass of the ship is more or less proportional to its volume, it made the ship need almost eight times more material than what they would need to build the Daedalus. Two hyperdrives instead of one and four reactors instead of one, all of them larger versions of those installed on the Daedalus, made the ship price rise so much that they didn't know when they would have enough resources to build more of them. There was also the problem that no matter how great the ship was, it had the drawback of not being able to be on more than one place at one time. The Terrans still didn't have so many ships that they could safely say they have enough of them and that there hadn't been situations where they didn't need to send all of their ships on different locations. All of that made the Terrans think hard about building more of their newest type of ship and they came to the conclusion that for now, they would remain with only two of them and instead build more Daedalus class ships. It would also take a lot of time for the new crew to get accustomed to the new ship and make sure that the ship was indeed without flaws. This job would mostly fall on the shoulders of the ship's new captain.

Amy Donovan was a former officer in the Royal Navy. She'd decided to join the Terran Alliance the moment she heard of its existence. She was a captain of a submarine for several years and she loved her job, but she knew the future was in space and not under water. After joining the Terran Alliance she'd spent some time as the first officer of the Atlas, but it had lasted for only a few weeks before the captain of the ship unfortunately fell ill and she had to fill in as the ship's new captain. The crew of the Atlas was mostly comprised of a British crew also previously being employed by the Navy and they worked exceptionally well under her command. When the construction of the BB-305 was nearing completion, she got the unexpected offer to be the new captain of the latest Terran ship. For some reason Jack offered her the job instead of somebody else. It was strange to her because she thought Emerson, Coldwell and Pendergast would be much higher on the list for the job, but for some reason that she didn't know Jack had offered the job to her. She of course accepted simply because there was no other alternative. If she refused, she would never get a chance like that ever again and the thought of becoming the captain of the Terran new flagship was too great of an opportunity to pass. Maybe, if she knew how big the shoes she'd have to fill would be, she would have declined.

"Ma'am, we have reached orbit," the helmsmen told the captain.

"Give me one last systems check," Amy said to the crew a little nervous.

After a few moments another officer replied. "All systems are working properly ma'am."

"Good. Helm, plot a course for Earth and engage the hyperdrives when ready. Best speed."

"Ay-ay ma'am," the helmsmen answered.

The ship turned toward the void of space, only to power up the hyperdrive engines and speed into hyperspace a few seconds later. Amy relaxed a little now that the ship had entered hyperspace and especially after she felt the engines working as advertised, but she was still nervous to be in charge of this ship. The ship was beautiful, the crew she picked was the best she could get and many of them were her old colleagues onboard the Atlas and, so far, the ship wasn't showing any signs of malfunctioning. She tried to tell herself that this was the only important thing and that they would be able to fill any expectations without difficulties, but the plaque on her left that had only recently being changed was telling her differently. She looked at her for a long moment, reading the inscription for the umpteenth time.

THE ENTERPRISE

_In loving memory of Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill_

* * *

**Earth – Terrania (…three days earlier)**

Jack walked down to the gate room to greet his old friend Teal'c who had just gated to Terrania. Jack had called him to come here because they had some important business to discuss.

"Teal'c, I almost thought you were not coming. What's with the delay?" Jack said once he reached Teal'c.

"O'Neill, I have been detained in yet another Council meeting," Teal'c answered with an annoyed look on his face. Apparently, both of them were fed up with the constant meetings and talks that usually solved nothing.

"Yeah, I can imagine," Jack said knowingly.

"O'Neill, what is the reason for me being here?"

"Several actually, but let's go to my office first."

Teal'c nodded and both of them started walking toward Jack's office.

"How's Rya'c?" Jack asked wanting to talk about something that for once wasn't business related.

"He is fine O'Neill."

"Any grandkids in the near future?"

"Not that I am aware."

"Doesn't he want to start a family?"

"He does not. He is more preoccupied with making a career into… politics," Teal'c answered clearly showing he didn't like the idea.

"And you don't like it," Jack stated.

"He is a grown man and what I think is irrelevant."

"And yet, you don't like it."

"I do not."

"Why not?"

Teal'c gave him the kind of look that said '_What do you think why'_.

"You think he'll end up as miserable as we are, is that it?"

"I do. More and more I find myself thinking of a way to leave the council and retire on Chulak, but I still believe that, with the Jaffa Nation still being young and with Gerak still being in charge, it is not the right time."

"Yeah, you don't have to explain. We both didn't want to end up behind a desk, but maybe it will be different for Rya'c. He might even like it," Jack said, but the last part for some reason didn't sound right.

"Maybe, but I know Rya'c and I know he is doing this because he wants to help our nation grow, but I also know that this will become more of a burden to him than something he really wants or that he likes."

The two of them continued the rest of the walk in silence. They entered Jack's office, Jack siting behind his desk and Teal'c siting in the chair on the opposite side.

"What did you want do discuss O'Neill," Teal'c asked once seated.

"Well, let's first solve a little problem we are having with the gates' upgrade. The problem is that several teams have been stopped from upgrading the gates by your people. It never escalated to anything, but the Jaffa on site were resolute we shouldn't change the gate and DHD control crystals. They say it is a direct order from the Council," Jack explained their predicament.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, "I informed the council of your plans to upgrade the gates on our planets and I told them the reason why. They have all agreed to allow you to do so. I do not know of any change in the council's decision."

"So you are saying the Council approved, but now they changed their mind?"

"No, I'm saying the council did not change their mind. I was present on every meeting we had ever since and there have been no more talks in regard to this matter."

"So, why are those Jaffa blocking us from doing it, or better yet, who told them to do it?"

"I think I know the answer to that question."

"You mean, Gerak?"

"Yes. It is the only plausible explanation."

"Wait, isn't even he bound by the council's ruling. I mean, he can't just decide differently without saying anything."

"No he cannot, but that does not mean anything. He could have instructed a few Jaffa to watch the gates and stop you from upgrading them. Nobody would ever question Gerak's orders."

"So he's going against a direct order of the Council. Isn't that reason enough to kick him out."

"No it is not. Gerak is still too powerful to be expelled for a small matter such as this, and even if the rest of the council decides to go against him, the repercussions could be worse than the possible benefits."

"I thought it would be a good thing if Gerak got expelled from the Council."

"Not while he has so much support. If he is expelled from the Council, he could decide to leave the Free Jaffa and too many would follow him."

"The FJN would split in half and it would probably be the worst thing that can happen right now."

"That is correct O'Neill. The only way to expel Gerak would be if he commits something that would outrage many of his supporters, and a minor infraction such as this would not be perceived as such."

"I get that, but we still have a problem here. We need to update those gates. It's all or nothing with the upgrade, remember. It would be even worse for the Jaffa if the only planets the Ori can dial are theirs."

"I agree, and I will speak to the council. I am certain they will order Gerak to recall the Jaffas guarding the gates so that you can finish the upgrades."

"Alright, that's settled then. Let's talk about the other thing why I called you here. Until now we kept it a secret because we didn't want to spread it before we were sure it would actually happen, but now that we are, I'm informing you that the Asgard, Nox, Liam's people and the Terrans are in the process of forming the Second Great Alliance in the same way the first was formed so long ago."

"This is great news, especially with the Ori coming here and the other problems you have with the Lucian Alliance and the Wraith. The formation of such a powerful alliance would greatly increase your chances of defeating them."

"Yes that's what we think also, but there is more. This alliance will not limit us from forming other alliances with other races in the galaxy. Of course, there are a lot of rules that must be followed, but I think we can formalize our own alliance without to many compromises from both sides."

"You are suggesting we make a formal alliance?"

"Yes. The Council has thought about it for the past few months, but we needed to check how the Second Great Alliance was going to end up to be and what limitations we will have in forming an alliance of our own with somebody else and we are now more than certain we can pull it off. I think we really improved our relations lately, so we are now officially asking the FJN if it wants to make the FJN-Terran Alliance become a reality."

"Indeed we have improved our relations and this is something I was looking forward to, but I am not certain we are prepared for such a thing. In my opinion there is much more work to be done before this alliance can be officially formed."

"I concur, there is much more that needs to be done, but you must also take into account that this is only the beginning of our talks. If the Second Great Alliance is any indication, it will take at least six months or maybe even a year before we can finally sign the papers, but if we start now it will at least go in that direction and it will happen much faster. You will also know what to expect from such an alliance even before the real talks start. Maybe it will take even longer, I don't know, but I think sooner we start, sooner we will reach our goal."

"I agree. This is a great opportunity, but I am still uncertain how will the council react if you ask them now. Gerak and his followers will be against it and if he poisons even a few of the remaining council members we could worsen the current relationship between our two people."

"I know that this is a possibility. I'm only asking that you consider it, maybe talk to Bra'tac about it and when you are confident that it's the right time, to know that the offer is on the table. I can also give you the first draft of the proposal so that both of you can study it. This way you'll know what points will be easy to achieve and what will be more difficult."

"Indeed, that would help greatly. I will discuss the matter with Bra'tac. He has the great ability of sensing when the right moment to ask the rest of the council is."

"Great. Oh, you should also know that sooner or later we are going to ask more human races to join this alliance, but that's something that won't happened for a few years at least. The only other race we are considering right now is the Herbidians, since the Langarans are still too much behind us and the Optricans still have too many problems on their own planet."

"You are trying to unite the entire galaxy. It is a commendable goal, but not one easy to achieve."

"We know, but with the gate network making distances like those between stars almost inexistent, we need to install friendly relationships between as many races as we can. It will also help us in the fight against the Lucian Alliance. Pirates like them wouldn't stand a chance if the galaxy is united and even in the case of the Ori, it would be a good thing to be a united front."

"Indeed. It was nice to see you again O'Neill, but I must return to Dakara. I will also solve this little problem with Gerak and let you know when your teams can come to our planets to continue their work."

"Alright Teal'c, I hope it won't be another month before we see each other again."

"My hope as well O'Neill."

Teal'c left to go back to Dakara and Jack decided he just has enough time to find Daniel and maybe even Sam and grab something to eat before he would have to attend yet another meeting, this time, with the Herbidians. Not the way he wanted to spend the day, but at least it would be Daniel the one to do the talking. His presence was a mere formality, but in essence his job would be to just sit there and smile.

Jack walked down the corridor to Daniel's office and found him reading some big book. It took him a while to _convince_ Daniel that it was alright to leave a book in order to eat something even if he didn't finish reading it from cover to cover. Reluctantly Daniel had to admit that he was hungry since he wasn't really sure if he ate today, but the book was so interesting that he was reluctant to leave it for later and he knew he had the meeting afterwards so he didn't even know when he would return to his office. In the end, Jack decided that talk was cheap and only actions counted. He grabbed Daniel and dragged it to the mess hall. On the way to the mess hall he tricked Sam into believing he had something important to discuss with the two of them, so she followed them to the mess hall. She wasn't very pleased when she found out it was only a trick to get them all to lunch, but Jack had an argument that she didn't know how to beat.

"You have to eat, don't you?" Jack said.

"I do, but maybe I wasn't hungry, did you think of that?" Sam retorted.

"Are you?"

"That's not the point. You didn't know that when you dragged me from my office with false pretenses."

"But, you _are_ hungry?"

Daniel was looking at the two of them bickering among each other, "Are you sure you two are not married."

Jack and Sam stopped bickering and both turned toward Daniel with red faces, both replaying at the same time, "Shut up!"

"I'm just saying what I'm seeing."

They continued to eat quietly for the next minute or so before Jack decided to break the awkward silence, "Look, I have another meeting later and after that I am gone for the next few days. I just wanted to spend a nice meal in company that's all."

"Jack, do you think it's smart to go _fishing_ with all that is happening right now?" Daniel asked emphasizing the fishing part since Jack had never caught anything in that pond of his.

"The reason why I need to go _is_ because of everything that is happening? I need some peace and quiet to think, without being overwhelmed by paperwork and meetings. Besides, it's been a year since the last time I went to my cabin."

"Alright, if you say so," Daniel concluded.

"Is there any chance any of you will change your mind and come to spend a few peaceful days relaxing?" Jack asked for the fifth time, already knowing the answer.

"I have work to do," Sam said flatly.

"Me to," Daniel added.

"You know this working all the time will cost you your health, you know that don't you?"

"Jack, I would rather spend two days reading a book than going fishing and you know that," Daniel explained.

"Well, you can read the damn book in my cabin as well."

"And I have a few meetings scheduled with my department so…" Daniel said adding another excuse why not to go.

Jack switched from looking at Daniel to Sam who noticed, "Oh, me too."

"Fine, do as you like. I'm going to relax a few days in peace while you stay here and work," Jack concluded the discussion clearly not understanding why the two of them wouldn't take a vacation from time to time.

Their lunch continued mostly in silence for the next fifteen minutes or so until Daniel and Jack had to go to their meeting with the Herbidians. It was mostly Daniel who needed to attend to this meeting, but Jack presence was important because he was the most important person here. There was a lot the Terran Alliance could gain from their relations with the Herbidians. The Herbidians raised capitalism to a completely new level, with their larger companies being the one to dictate their planet's policies. It was strange to Daniel that such a society could strive since it stands to logic that those companies would make decisions that would further their own goals, but the Herbidians also have a very complex Constitution that even those ruling companies couldn't undermine. In their society equal opportunity among their people was very important and that fact intrigued the Terrans greatly. Even when dealing with other races everybody would have the same chance on their market. Of course that had to go both ways and that part wasn't so easily achievable. The Herbidians wanted direct access to Earth's markets and that was a problem for many reasons. The first problem was that the Terrans acted as a mediator in all transactions with outside races, and the second was the impact the Herbidian products would cause on Earth. The Herbidians were still many years more advanced than Earth was and if they opened a free market they would bankrupt many companies on Earth practically overnight. There was also the fact that, even if they conceded the Herbidians access to Earth, the countries would have to make their own separate agreements and they would most definitely want to protect their own products which would be in direct contrast with the Herbidians laws.

In the end, the meeting didn't go as well as they hoped. The Herbidians wouldn't allow free access to their homeworld until the Terrans didn't do the same. The idea of the Herbidians having to deal only with the Terrans while thez would have complete access to their planet was against their laws and also their better judgment. Without this first in a series of steps needed to further their relationship, an alliance was far from even being mentioned. The Herbidians left Terrania escorted by Jack and Daniel to the gateroom as a courtesy.

"So, another incredibly useful meeting is over," Jack said sarcastically.

"Jack."

"I know, I know, these talks are important."

"Exactly."

"Look, I had enough of this place, at least for a few days, so I'm going to pack up. See you on Monday Daniel," Jack stated wanting to leave for the weekend as soon as possible.

"Alright, we'll see each other then. Bring some fish," Daniel said even though he knew Jack wouldn't catch any fish there.

Jack nodded and left for his apartment not far from the main building. He packed up only the essential he would need and contacted the Prometheus to beam him up. One of the advantages of being the Commander in Chief was that he could reach his small estate in Minnesota in minutes. The idea of spending half a day traveling like the rest of world was so unappealing that he would probably have decided not to go.

After spending a few minutes talking with Pendergast he beamed back in front of his cabin. He spent a few moments looking at the peaceful environment he suddenly found himself in. Finally some peace and quiet to spend with his thoughts, something he really needed right now. Too much meetings, people always wanting something important that had to be solved immediately and a ton of other obligations were leaving Jack with no time to think about everything that was happening. And he needed the time to think so that he would be able to see the big picture, the real situation they were in and understand what their next steps should be.

Jack entered his cabin, closing the door behind him. Moments later the cabin blew up in a spectacular blast, the result of what must have been several pounds of military grade explosive. The cabin was completely obliterated, as well as everything that was inside.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – The Enterprise _(…present time)_**

It took the Enterprise a little more than a day to cross the distance between the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxy. The ship had been refitted with a fully charged ZPM and consequently it was capable of feeding the power hungry hyperdrives with as much power as they could take. The Terrans now had a dozen ZPMs at their disposal as a result of the Asuran demise and they loaned one of the precious devices to the Enterprise so that she could cross the large distance as fast as possible.

The Enterprise exited hyperspace and the captain immediately saw something that she didn't expect in orbit of her home planet.

"Is there a convention on Earth that I wasn't aware of?" Amy asked no one in particular after seeing what the frontal display was showing her.

"I'm detecting half a dozen Terran ships, as many Asgard O'Neill battlecruisers and Liam's massive ship in orbit above the United States," the officer manning the sensors replied.

"We are receiving a message from Terrania. They are ordering us to join the formation of ships in orbit," the comm. officer notified the captain.

"Did they say what is going on?"

"No ma'am, they didn't," the comm. officer replied.

"Alright, take us near the three auroras."

The helmsmen complied and the ship slowly took his place among the other ships in orbit.

* * *

**Earth – White House **

"Can someone explain to me what those ships are doing above our heads?" President Hayes asked the large group of advisors and high officials who were standing in his office.

The President was frustrated, there was no better way to describe it, and it's been that way for the past three days. The news of O'Neill's cabin blowing up with him inside was all they were talking about these days. In that time, he had to talk with practically half the world and none of those calls were pleasant. The first to call had been the Terrans. He received calls from practically all members of their council demanding to know what happened and what is he going to do about it, and to both questions he didn't know how to answer. Then other presidents around the world started calling as well, asking the same questions plus adding a few like what would the repercussions be and who should take the blame for this. All those questions made him incredibly frustrated, mostly because he didn't know why they thought he knew anything more than they did. After an entire day of people telling him they didn't have a clue who did this or for what reason, his frustration raised even further when apparently the word of O'Neill's death went outside the boundaries of his planet and aliens started showing up. First a massive ship he or anybody else in his office didn't know to whom it belonged showed up and then half a dozen Asgard ships arrived joining the group of ships above his head, all clearly not happy about this whole situation. The worst part was that he couldn't blame them for doing it, or at least not entirely. He thought about what _his_ people would do if he got killed on foreign soil and it wasn't pretty. And this situation was even worse because Jack was also an American who served his country for a very long time with honor, a man who saved this planet countless times and a hero to the entire world, if not the galaxy.

And he was also his friend. After the formation of the Terran Alliance, Jack and Hayes had spent a lot of time talking to each other. Mostly, they would talk about what was going on with the Terran Alliance, but Hayes suspected it was also because Jack didn't like Coolidge too much and preferred to call him instead. He didn't mind, he didn't like him either. The talks he would have with Jack were not as the usual talks with other dignitaries. Jack had always been an easy going person, even when he was obligated to call him 'Mr. President'. Now that he wasn't, their talks became more in the line of two friends talking after a hard day of work, dropping ideas on how to do things. All this was gone now and he wanted to know who's responsible for murdering his friend and, by doing so, probably tossing the planet into another crisis.

The Chief of Staff entered the presidential office, "Mister President, we have Daniel Jackson on the line. He wants to speak with you."

"Put him through," The President replied.

The large display on the other side of the room showed Daniel with a very unhappy expression on his face. "Mr. President, I will get to the point without the usual pleasantries. You know what we want. We want the ones responsible for Jack's murder found."

"Mr. Jackson, I am well aware of that, and I can assure you, this is something I want as well, but the problem is we have no leads. The cabin was completely destroyed and the only thing we know for certain is that the explosive used was C4. There must have been some kind of trigger that activated the explosive the moment he entered the cabin."

"Mr. President we already know that."

"We don't know anything else. I assure you, we will do whatever we can to find who did this."

"Mr. President, if this is true then I think I have something that can help in your investigation, but we want to be part of it from this moment on."

"What do you mean you have something that can help?"

"Are you prepared to work with us Mr. President?"

He knew that Daniel wanted some guarantee that he was going to allow them access to act on US soil before saying anything, "Alright Mr. Jackson, you have my word we will work on this together, but before we begin, there is another problem we must talk about."

"I suppose you are referring to the ships in orbit above Washington," Daniel understood immediately what Hayes' problem was.

"That's right. So many ships above our heads are making many people very nervous, me included."

"I understand Mr. President, but for now it will stay that way. I don't have any leverage over the alien ships, and to tell you the truth, if I try to order those ships to leave, even ours, I don't know how it would turn out. I think right now, it's better to not even try it. Once we resolve the matter at hand, the ships in orbit will leave, I can assure you of that."

Hayes didn't like it, but he knew pressing the issue further wouldn't accomplish anything "Alright, what do you know?"

"Terrania's security has recently been breached and several documents have been stolen and subsequently transferred via satellite somewhere in the United States. We were able to capture the perpetrator and we've been collecting evidence on what turned out to be a very large organization with members in many countries _in _the Terran Alliance and outside of it, mostly China and the Middle East," Daniel explained.

The President was shocked, and there were two main reasons for that. There was clearly a rogue organization that he didn't know anything about, and the Terrans were doing something that they didn't have the authority to do, "Mr. Jackson, you are telling me you are investigating this matter _on _the planet's soil. You do not have the authority to do such a thing and you know it. If you had something you should have reported the matter to us."

Daniel didn't even flinch at the Presidents words, he didn't even care at the moment, but there was another reason as well. The display showed a picture of a man in the left upper corner, "Mr. President, do you recognize the man on the picture?"

The President looked at the picture, "No, I don't."

"Do you remember the incident with the stolen Naquadah more than a year ago?" Daniel asked the President. After seeing the President nodding, he continued, "This man was one of the perpetrators that were apprehended in the warehouse where we found the stolen Naquadah. The man, as well as two others, were taken into custody by two FBI agents who came to the scene shortly after the raid ended, effectively stopping our investigation."

"I will take you word for it because I was never apprised of such details back then, but why is this important right now?"

"Well Mr. President, can someone explain to me how this man can once again be directly involved in stealing the aforementioned documents, and most importantly, how can he be free right now?" Daniel told the President while the display showed another picture of the same man taken somewhere on the streets by a TIA team. The timestamp showed the picture was taken less than a week ago.

Hayes was plastered by this revelation and he immediately understood what Daniel was implying by this. If this man was free, somebody pretty high in his government had to release him after he'd been captured and the Terrans had a pretty good reason for not informing them of their investigation, "I understand where you are going with this Mr. Jackson, and I'm going to find out exactly what happened after this man was apprehended, but I still think you should have come to me with this."

"Mr. President, with all due respect, we couldn't take the chance of tipping off whoever is behind all this and until now, we have only collected intel so that we could present the full case to you. It was always Jack's intention to involve you once we had enough information." Daniel finished with a more somber tone.

The President also noticed Daniel's reaction when he mentioned Jack's name. Hayes thought about it for a while. This whole situation was a mess but what Daniel was telling him wasn't even evidence that those responsible for stealing the Naquadah and the documents were even involved in Jack's death, but he also knew that the probability there was yet _another_ organization with similar motives was almost nonexistent, "Alright, I am willing to leave your _little infraction_ to discuss on a later time and for now focus on finding who those people are and if they are involved in Jack's death. How do you want to proceed?"

"Give us full authority to work on US soil with the help of your people, but at the same time keep the whole investigation as secret as possible. We don't want to tip off anyone who's involved in this before it is too late. On a later time, I would like from you to contact the other countries and ask them to give us the same access so that we can extend our investigation to other countries as well. I'm willing to give you all the data we have with a list of all the people we know for certain to be involved."

Hayes thought about it for a long time. What Daniel was asking wasn't a small thing, but he also knew it had to be done if they wanted to get to the bottom of this and more importantly if he wanted those ships to leave orbit any time soon. "Mr. Jackson, I'm inclined to grant you your request, but for the matter of involving other countries, I can't give you any guarantees they will accept."

"I'm aware of that, and I'm only asking for you Mr. President to try."

"Good, then it's settled. There is another thing. I want to be personally informed of any step you are planning to make in advance."

"We will Mister President." Daniel concluded.

The call ended shortly after. The President received the list of possible suspects containing a lot of names and he didn't like who some of those names were. There where Senators, CEO's in large corporations, enforcement officers in the FBI and other agencies, and even a few people very close to him, people he worked with on a daily basis in the US and from other countries. The President reluctantly signed the Presidential order giving the Terrans full authority to conduct their investigation on US soil. The only thing left for the President to do was to slump back in his chair and wait, hoping this whole mess would soon be over, with as little repercussions as possible.

It didn't take long for the President to receive the list of people the Terrans were planning to apprehend first. The President thought he would also have a little more time after receiving the Terrans plan, but that wasn't the case. The moment he received the list, people started disappearing. Terran teams were already in place storming houses, offices, or wherever else they would have to go to capture the people they believed to be involved. His advisors also informed him that several ships above his head had changed location. He knew those ship did it to provide support for the teams on the ground, probably beaming in more teams and also beaming them out once the suspects were apprehended. From how fast the Terrans were acting, Hayes understood exactly how angry they were and he knew that with the determination and technology at their disposal, the Terrans would soon find out everything those people knew and that he would receive more lists with a lot of more people on them.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

Klaus was barely able to contain his anger. He was intended to find every last person involved in Jack's murder in record time. He also felt guilty for what happened to Jack. He was the head of the TIA and his job was to know everything. His job was to know if somebody was planning to kill Jack and prevent it from happening. He failed in that respect, but he was not going to fail in finding the guilty ones, and once he did find them, they would pay dearly for what they did. And he had the full support of everybody on the island. There wasn't a person who thought he was too harsh in snatching people from their homes and putting them in an interrogation room, hooked up on a Terran lie detector without even the right to have a lawyer present. Nobody cared how he did it; the only thing they all wanted was to find _who_ did it.

Klaus, Daniel and Sam were standing in a small room looking through the semitransparent glass into the adjacent interrogation room. Inside the room, Kinsey was strapped to a chair while connected to a lie detector. The amount of information, or better to say lies, they were getting was staggering. If it wasn't for the lie detector, it would be difficult to know when the man was laying and when he was telling the truth. He was after all a politician.

Daniel looked at Sam who was standing in the corner of the room. He wasn't sure she was actually listening to what Kinsey or anybody else was saying. He didn't even know if she cared if they found who's responsible for Jack's death. He was dead and finding out who did it wasn't going to change that fact. He knew how bad things were for her when he had ascended, nobody knowing if they should think of him as dead or alive, or if they would ever see him again. He thought that now it was even worse for her than it was at that time and he didn't know what to do, or even if there was anything that he could do. By looking at Klaus he saw something else. He saw anger and guilt on the man's face, sentiments that were pushing the man to find who did it. It was probably a way to atone for the guilt he was feeling for letting Jack being killed under his watch. Daniel also wasn't sure how to feel about Klaus. He didn't know if he was blaming the man for what happened, or if he blamed himself for letting Jack go in the first place. He couldn't understand how reckless they had been by even allowing Jack to go to his cabin in the first place.

"We now know that Kinsey at least knew about the plan to murder Jack," Klaus said snapping Daniel from his thought.

Daniel turned back to look at Kinsey in the other room through the glass, "Yeah. And we also have a few more people that we know are directly involved. At this pace, we will know every person involved in this in less than a day."

"And then we will get the entire group of people who are in this organization. We should soon ask Hayes to ask the other countries to grant us access to act on their soil as well."

Daniel nodded, but before he or anyone else in the room could say anything, a bright flesh o light encompassed the room and the three of them were beamed away.

* * *

**Earth's Orbit – Liam's ship**

Klaus, Daniel and Sam rematerialized on the bridge of Liam's ship. It took them a moment to understand where they were. When they did, their eyes grew as large as they possibly could while their jaws dropped almost touching the floor.

"Hello kids," Jack greeted his three friends.

Jack looked at his stunned friends in front of him. He could imagine how they were working out in their heads what had happened to him and how was possible that he was still alive. He then saw the three people changing their expression from utter astonishment to one of incredible anger. Jack turned to look at Liam, "I told you it wasn't a good idea."

Liam was looking at the three people in front of them and he could also see the murderous expression on their faces. At one point he thought how it would be a good thing if he ordered the ship to raise a forcefield between them, just to be on the safe side, "I can see that."

"What idea?" Daniel said already knowing what the answer would be.

Jack waited for a moment before answering sheepishly to Daniel's question, "To not tell anyone I wasn't dead. It was his idea, not mine." That didn't change the murderous expression in the faces of the three people who were looking at him, it only added Liam's.

Sam slowly walked toward Jack who instinctively took a few steps back already anticipating what was going to happened. Instead, upon reaching him she hugged him without saying anything.

Jack did the same also not saying anything.

"You are going to pay for this later," Sam said softly.

"Sorry," it was the only thing Jack could say.

Sam stepped back one step, at the same time giving Liam another look that made him flinch, "Why didn't you tell us? And what happened exactly."

Liam thought about how best to answer, "I must take the blame for not telling you. Jack wanted to, but I thought it would be best to keep it secret from everyone until things got in motion. You see, the Guardians have been monitoring Earth for a long time and we knew about this rogue organization that was spreading on your planet like a plague. When our spies found out about their plan to assassinate Jack, our first impulse was to inform you, but after thinking about it a little more, we came to realize how stupid their idea was and what would be the repercussions if they indeed succeeded in their attempt. We then monitored them even closer and we found out how they planned to do it, and we actually helped them."

Klaus raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, we knew that their pathetic plan to rig Jack's cabin would have never worked. Your sensors, when scanning the cabin from orbit, would have detected the explosives in there, so we decided to mask them so that your sensors could not pick on them." Liam told Klaus who was clearly changing color as he was hearing the explanation. The bright red face looking at Liam with the same murdering expression wasn't a nice thing to look at.

It took to Klaus a minute to compose himself back, "That makes a few things a little clearer. I've spent the past three days trying to figure out how in the hell did those people manage to shield the explosives from our sensors. Now I know."

"It was necessary. If we didn't, their plan would have failed miserably."

Daniel didn't understand one thing, "But why? I mean, if we found the explosive we would do the same thing as we did right now. We surly wouldn't let the matter drop."

Liam nodded, "Yes, that is probably true, but would the rest of the planet react the same way. Would the President of the United States give you the same level of authority, or would he have acted differently. You must understand that he needed an incredibly good reason to give you Carte Blanche, or an incredibly screwed up reason may be a better term."

"So this whole thing was a scam to make The President allow us to perform this investigation without impediments, but why not tell _us_?" Daniel asked.

"To make it look as real as possible. To make you act as angry as you really were, and to make the others see it that way. If somehow they find out this was a ruse, or even only suspected it, it would have been even worse. You wouldn't have gotten the Presidential permission you needed to apprehend those people, and they would have also felt cheated by you. This way you have the excuse that somebody else orchestrated the whole thing while you didn't know anything about it and only found out afterward. And I don't care what they think of me, so I am the best escape goat for this."

It was a good plan, Klaus had to admit it. He was still pissed that another Intelligence Agency was able to find out about the plan to assassinate Jack while he didn't, but that wasn't important right now. The idea of them masking their sensors lessened the sense of guilt he was feeling. He after all did what was needed to keep Jack safe and the meddling of an alien race much more advanced than they were was something he couldn't have planned for. "I must admit, it was a great plan."

"Thank you, I thought that too." Liam replied to Klaus compliment.

"So what now, we tell the world what exactly happened?" Daniel asked thinking of the ramifications.

"Yes, but without rushing. I wanted to keep it secret until the conclusion of this whole mess, but Jack insisted to at least tell the three of you. When you finish capturing all those involved, then you give the news of Jack still being alive to the Terrans and then the rest of the world.

They continued discussing what the plan would be for another fifteen minutes before the three quests beamed back to Terrania in order to continue dismantling the organization.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

Kinsey thought about what had happened exactly. The sudden excitement he felt when he heard that Jack had died lasted for only three days. He thought they had finally accomplished something, especially on a personal level, but when people in black rushed in his house not caring for the guests present and taking him away, he knew things were turning for the worse. They took him, beamed him twice, and he found himself in an interrogation room with his rights as an American citizen clearly gone down the toilet's drain. Those people clearly didn't care who he was and that became apparent from the way they laughed at him when he asked for a lawyer. Then the interrogation had started with his ability to lie also gone down the drain when he saw the lie detector those people had. Every lie he would say it was confirmation of guilt on his part and the accursed device was also capable of seeing everything he was thinking. Images of meetings he had with the others in their little organization bent on destroying the Terran Alliance would scroll on the monitor the same moment he thought about them, as well as many private matters he would accidentally think about. At that moment, realization struck him and he understood how the hatred he had toward Jack had blinded him from seeing what the repercussions for Jack's assassination would end up to be. He thought he would be protected, he thought the Terrans have no real power to touch him or anyone else on Earth's soil. How wrong he was.

Right now the only thing he could do was to make a deal with these people and try to find the best possible way to not end up in prison for the rest of his life, or worse. He thought these people wouldn't have any problem in beaming him in the emptiness of space above the planet and say it was an accidental mishap. The problem was that the damned machine he was hooked up with, was telling them whatever they wanted to know without him having anything to say on the matter. When he told the people in the interrogation room that he was going to cooperate, they laughed at him saying he was already doing it. He was so screwed that he wanted to cry.

When Klaus entered the room, Kinsey could have sworn the man had a smile on his face. Of course, there was also the murdering expression that masked the little smile, but he was a politician with so many years of experience in reading people that he was sure he had seen a smile. He didn't know why the man would have smiled since their leader was dead after all. The only bright side of this whole ordeal he could think of.

"Mr. Kinsey, it appears your career in politics is over. We have enough on you to toss you on an uninhabited planet with a lot of hungry animals for what would be the short remaining of your life, and nobody hear or anywhere else on the planet would shed a tear for you," Klaus said with a smug expression on his face.

Kinsey was screwed and he knew it, "What do you want from me?"

"Nothing, there is nothing you can give us that we don't already know. I just wanted to see your face one last time."

Kinsey was angry. He knew full well there was nothing he could do or say to make his situation look any better. The only thing he could do was to reply back to the man with the same arrogance, "Well, the only thing that makes me happy is in knowing that I've succeeded in bringing O'Neill down with me."

Klaus smiled mischievously at him, and that made him incredibly uncomfortable. The man stepped closer, so close that he was mere centimeters from his face. "Are you sure about that?" Klaus whispered in his ear.

At that moment, Kinsey lost the little color he still had in his face. Was it possible that they'd failed? From what he saw in Klaus, there was no doubt about it. Jack was still alive.

* * *

**Earth –President's Office**

If the Terrans wanted him to have a heart attack, they found the right way to do it. What they had done to so many people, important people, around the country, made his phone ring relentlessly the entire day. Spouses were asking why their dear husbands had been snatched from their homes by people in black, asking what he was going to do about it, or better yet, why he wasn't doing anything to help them. When they said they were going to solve this situation fast, he didn't think they would do it so openly. All this was bad, but what really put his health at risk was Jack's sudden arrival in his office. He didn't know if to rejoice at the site of him beaming down, or if he should call a doctor for the slight arrhythmia in his heartbeat.

"What the hell!" The President managed to say after the sudden shock.

"Mister President," Jack said with a smile on his face.

"How?" The President asked, clearly still confused.

"Well, I can only say that I owe my life to Liam who knew in advance what those people had planned for me and acted accordingly."

The President was now even more confused, "Who's Liam?"

"Liam is an Alterran, Mister President."

"Alterran? What's an Alterran?" The President asked, his confusion reaching the peak.

Maynard, also present in the room, answered first," The Alterrans are the Ancients Mister President."

"There are Ancients still alive?" the President asked still trying to piece together what he knew with the new information he was getting.

"Yes Mister President, they are; one actually," Jack said.

"And he helped you how?"

"Well once I entered my cabin, he beamed me out before the explosion."

"But we found your remains?" Maynard said before the President could do the same.

"He planted some remains that he cloned from me before anyone arrived at the cabin," Jack explained.

Hayes was piecing together all the facts and he also wasn't born yesterday. He realized he had been duped into believing Jack died that day and he also realized the reason why. They wanted him and the rest of the world to believe Jack had died that day, "So this whole thing was a ruse to capture the people involved in this. I must say, Dr. Jackson and the rest of the council were incredibly convincing when I talked to them."

"That's because they didn't know. Nobody knew I was alive until recently. It was Liam's idea not to tell anyone until it was over, and it worked perfectly. He exactly predicted how the whole thing would have played out."

"And he knew I would give the Terrans authority to conduct their investigation only if all of us believed you were really dead," the President stated.

"Exactly."

"But, who is he?"

"That's a long story Mister President. Do you remember when somebody had warned us Baal was about to attack Earth?"

"I do."

"Well, he's the one who did it. He helped us on many more occasions, here and in the Pegasus galaxy, and he was also behind the proposal for the Terran Alliance Daniel and I allegedly wrote."

"And you knew about him for that long and you didn't say anything?"

"I couldn't have. I had to promise I wouldn't tell to anyone about him. At the time he didn't want anybody to know about him, and for a good reason. As you remember, at the time, Baal somehow found out exactly where our ZPM was and that we had no way of shipping it in time to Antarctica. We still don't know how he knew, and Liam didn't want the Goa'uld to know about him." Jack explained.

"And now he doesn't anymore? Why?"

"Because we are now in the process of rebuilding the First Great Alliance, with the Terrans, Asgard, Nox, and Liam and his people. We are only a month from signing the Second Great Alliance treaty."

"What? And you are telling me this only now?" the President asked a little frustrated.

"Yes Mister President and the reason is the same as why we didn't tell anyone about the stolen documents, or about the investigation we were secretly conducting. This rogue organization had ties on the entire planet, even outside of the countries who signed the Terran Alliance treaty. Only now that most of the people involved in this organization have been apprehended we are confident no information will fall into the wrong hands. There is much more we'll have to tell you now that we can. The Terran Alliance had grown considerably in the past year and a half, both here and in the Pegasus galaxy, and with the formal alliance with the other three strongest races in this region of the Universe, we are confident we achieved our primary goal, the reason why this organization has been formed in the first place."

"And that is?"

"To make Earth safe. We are now certain that nothing currently in the galaxy can attack Earth and be able to tell about it afterward." Jack stated simply.

The President was plastered by the information he was getting. He didn't know anything about all of this and he didn't like it, "That's… great news, but Jack, I'm not really happy about hearing all of this only now, and I can tell you right now, the other countries won't either. No matter what the circumstances had been or what you have accomplished, you deliberately withheld information from the countries that put you in charge of the Terran Alliance, and you meddled into things you didn't have authority to… meddle into!"

"I realize that Mister President, but Dmitri once said, what good will it do if we protect our planet from outside threats if we let Earth get destroyed from those coming from inside. I don't know if we made a mistake when we formed the Terran Alliance by restricting its power so much that it can't defend itself from inside enemies or if it wasn't, but that is exactly what happened and this rogue organization would have never acted as they did if they had known from the very beginning that we could have fought back. They stole the Naquadah, they stole the documents and they planned my assassination without thinking twice about the possible consequences and that is because they thought there wouldn't be any." Jack told the President a little pissed by the fact his hands were tied.

Hayes knew what Jack was telling him had his merits, but he couldn't get past the fact that they kept everything hidden from him, "Jack, you kept everything secret from _me_. You could have come to me directly and told me all this, but you haven't."

"That's true, but would it have been better if I did, or it would have been worse Mister President? If I came to you Mister President, and told you all of this, you would have had to hide it from everybody else, making you an accomplice in this whole mess. Can you imagine the repercussions for you if you knew and then somehow the other countries found out about it? You would have been in a much worse situation than you are right now," Jack explained his reasoning.

It was true. By not telling him, he was clear of any wrong doing and nobody could fault him. He thought about it for a long moment, "Fine, I understand your reasons, and I can even be grateful for protecting me, but I can't guarantee there won't be repercussions when the other countries hear about this. I'll try to smooth things up, but they will feel hurt and betrayed, the same way I'm feeling right now."

"I understand Mr. President, and I apologize once again. If I thought that there was any better way to solve this and that it involved informing you, I would have done it, but we didn't know of any other way."

Hayes finally calmed down now that he knew the entire story, "So what now?"

"Well, now we can finally start working without fear from inside threats, at least inside the Terran Alliance… which is the most important thing. There is still the problem of China and the other countries that refuse to join us, and neither we nor Liam likes that fact very much, but we think if we get involved somehow it could make things even worse. The biggest problem right know that we can think of is their space program, more precisely, how will that impact the relations we have already established with other races once they are out there. I don't think other races will think of them as separate from us. The second problem is what if they bring another Stargate back to Earth."

"What about it? I mean, we discussed the problem with China's space program and the possibility of them interfering with other races and, I must say, we don't like it, but what's that about bringing another Stargate?"

"Mister President, we don't know how the gate would interfere with ours. From what we know, if China brings back a gate and a DHD, it could become the default Stargate on the planet."

That was something that Hayes didn't like to hear, and the fact that this could potentially block the Terrans' gate from working properly was only a minor issue. The idea of the Chinese being able to bring whatever and whoever they wanted on Earth was what the President was really afraid of, "You are kidding right? Why would the other gate take precedence over yours?"

"We don't know Mister President, but we know from past experience, when the Russian had their gate with the DHD active, it took precedence over ours. It's possible the same could happen if the Chinese bring another one on the planet."

"You see, things like these should have been brought to my attention much earlier and not kept secret."

"Yes Mister President, I know, but I also know that this rogue organization had ties with China and if we told you about it, the information could have gone directly to them. We could have ended up telling _them_ what we fear the most."

Again, Jack was right. Hayes still couldn't believe this organization had ties with China and the Middle East, "What a mess. Do you have any idea on how to solve this?"

"We have, but we don't know if it's a _good _idea. First of all we will ask Liam what he thinks about it. After all, his race built the damn thing and maybe he knows how to make our gate the default one permanently. Secondly, we could stop them if they try to take another gate."

"Stop them? I don't like the sound of that."

"Me neither, but if we think about it, what they would do to get another gate is essentially stealing, and Dmitri thinks it is reason enough to stop them from doing it, at least legally speaking. He's still afraid what the repercussions would be. He doesn't believe the Chinese would just roll back and accept it, and there is still the problem that we would have to follow every ship they have, or check their cargo once they get back to Earth… which is something that we would probably have to do anyway, gate or no gate." Jack explained, more to himself than to anyone else in the room. He was as much perplexed about this as everybody else in the room.

"So, in short, you don't know what to do?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Jack admitted. "Mister President, as of now we are more confident in Earth's position regarding threats from outside than from the inside. And we have a lot of outside threats to worry about."

"We do?"

At that moment Jack realized he should have skipped the end part of the sentence, "Yes, we have Mister President, but as I said, I like that situation better than the situation on Earth."

Hayes wasn't about to drop the matter that easily. "What kind of threats?"

Jack was a little reluctant to go into details, but keeping secrets now that he effectively promised the President they wouldn't, was out of the question. His only regret was that he even started this topic, instead of leaving it as one of the many reports he would eventually send to him. "Well, as you know, there is the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy, and the Goa'uld are still out there, even though they are pretty beaten up and in hiding at the moment. There is also the Lucian Alliance, which is more a group of pirates than an alliance, but they have warships, so we have to watch out for them as well. And there are the Ori, the Ancients archenemies and religious freaks who want all humans to worship them or, if not, to die. Oh, and they are ascended beings like the Ancients are, so… big problem there."

"And you think the real threat is from inside Earth and not the outside? You must really think our internal situation is desperate, and I didn't get half of what you've just said."

"I do Mr. President; I do because I know how to fight aliens, but I don't know how to fight the Chinese, at least not without causing World War Three anyway."

"Alright, I think I had enough for one day. I want you to send me a _very_ detailed report on everything that is happening out there, and when I say very detailed, I really mean it. I will then contact the other countries and try to smooth things up with them and discuss the China problem with them. I don't have to tell you I don't want you to do anything on that subject."

"I promise you Mr. President, we won't." Jack told the President.

* * *

**Earth - Terrania**

The meeting was over shortly after and Jack returned to Terrania with more work waiting for him than what he had before going on vacation, and three days having been spent on Liam's ship couldn't be construed as vacation from whatever angle you looked at it. He walked into Daniel's office to see if something knew had happened while he was gone.

"I'm back."

"I can see that. How did it go with Hayes?" Daniel asked.

"Fine, more or less," Jack replied after thinking a little about the course of the meeting.

"More or less?"

"Yeah, he's pissed at the whole situation. He's mostly hurt because we kept him in the dark and I can't blame the guy."

"No, I suppose we can't. What about the other countries?"

"He told me he'll try to smooth things up, but he also thinks they won't be very happy with the way we managed the whole thing."

"We knew that already, but I still think there won't be any repercussions. They will be pissed, they will call and threaten, but in the end they will quiet down and this whole thing will be forgotten."

"I hope you're right about this. With all that's happening out there and on the planet, the last thing we need is to be on a warpath with our own countries."

"Yeah, I hope that too. Did he ask about Liam?"

"He did, but not much. Though, I think he's expecting a much more detailed report on the subject as well as of everything else that he hasn't been apprised of," Jack said, but then he remembered something.

Daniel was about to reply, but he saw Jack smiling for some reason, "What?"

"What?" Jack replied.

"You're smiling, why?"

"Oh it's nothing, I just thought about how in this whole mess I finally got my wish fulfilled."

"What wish?"

"The Enterprise," Jack said with a smug on his face.

"Oh that, well…" Daniel started saying something but he was reluctant for some reason.

It didn't take long for Jack to understand something was wrong, "What?"

"We talked about it, and we think we are going to change the name now that… you know."

"Know what?"

"Well, now that you're not dead."

"Oh, come on! You're telling me that, to have a ship called The Enterprise, not only I have to die, but also stay that way!"

"Pretty much… yeah," Daniel said after thinking about it for a while.

"That's not fair, plain and simple. Whose idea was it?" Jack was pissed, he knew if they changed the name, there was no chance of another ship being called the Enterprise ever again. That is if he didn't die again, and he wasn't planning on dying any time soon.

"Sam's."

"Dammit! She did tell me I'd pay for what happened."

"Oh, from what I gather it will be much worse than that. She is really pissed at you."

"Well, she's not talking to me. I tried… repeatedly. How long do you think it will last?"

"Oh, I really don't know. At least a week, I think."

"Maybe I could go visit Teal'c for a few days."

"No, you can't. You're needed here, with the signing approaching and all."

"Dammit! Any idea?"

"Nope. You'll have to suck it up and take it."

Jack was still thinking about the ship's name and of a way why they shouldn't change it, "Really? They are going to change the name? Maybe I can find a reason so they can't. I think it is bad luck to change the ship's name."

"I don't think the Council will take that as a good reason."

"Yeah, I think that too," Jack stated knowing he would have to find something better than that if he wanted to stop the Council from changing the name. "Well, I'm going back to my office. After three days of being away I must have a ton of paperwork in there waiting."

Daniel nodded and Jack took off. He was walking down the corridor, still thinking of a reason why they shouldn't change the name, when he realized that this corridor was taking him in front of Sam's office. He decided maybe it was a good idea to take the scenic route in order to avoid all known places where he could stumble upon her. He also wasn't in any hurry. Knowing what was waiting for him in his office, a longer walk was a good idea anyway.

* * *

**Thanks for reading and I hope you liked this chapter. Please let me know what you think.**


	9. Chapter 9: Legacy

**Author's note: Here is the next chapter. It was really fun writing it and i hope you'll like it too.**

**Senrab Nomis: Thanks for the review and yes I also wondered how much time had passed somewhere around this chapter. That's why in the next one it will be mentioned the second year anniversary of the attack on Earth. I'll try to write every week one chapter as I have done so far.**

**Thanks for reading the story.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Liam's Ship**

Liam was running through the ship's corridors not because he was in a hurry, but because he was exercising and that was definitely a new thing for him. He was thinking of the last time he spoke with Lya and the strange way she looked at him. He was becoming used to being looked strangely, Thor being the one to constantly look at him like he was seeing a ghost of some kind, but Lya acted differently and that made him feel extremely uncomfortable. It was like she knew what was happening to him and he knew there was a real chance she really did know. From the very beginning of the Alterran friendship with the Nox, the Alterrans knew the Nox were the oldest race they've ever met, and probably ever would. They were much older than the Alterrans and they knew a lot more than they were letting on. Some Alterrans suspected the Nox had ascended a long time ago, eons before they even knew what ascension was, but for some unknown reason, they'd eventually decided to descend back to the lower plane. Those were only conjectures with no real proof, mostly because the Nox wouldn't give any, but still there were some signs that made many believe it to be true. Liam was one of those who believed. It was also one of the reasons that compelled him to follow a similar path.

When he reached the Nox home planet to update their Stargate and DHD Lya came to him spending a lot of time just staring at him without saying anything. She smiled the whole time, the usual way she always did when she saw something that amused her. In the end, he had to ask her what was going on, because it was becoming increasingly distracting and he couldn't finish his work on the gate with her there. She simply answered that he had changed from the last time they saw each other and that she was very curious about it. The problem with the Nox is that they never go into details. Their philosophy is to let others discover things by themselves instead of just telling them. Someone would say they have a really Zen approach to life, but they would also tell you how frustrating it was at times to talk to them. Of course they brought this philosophy to a whole new level, a level where getting anything useful out of them was practically impossible. He tried to get something more from her, but it had been to no avail. The only thing that she added was that he should exercise his body and mind, now more than ever. She told him she couldn't tell him anything more and that it was his job to understand what was happening to him.

He took Lya's words at heart and now he was running through the corridors in order to train his body. It was strange, he had to admit. In the thousands of years he'd spent as a mortal, he'd never thought of himself as an athlete. He was always in good shape, but what he could do now was beyond simply being in good shape. He was just finishing running the second round around the ship, which was more than ten miles, and he was feeling great. And this wasn't all. He had also spent a lot of time meditating and he found out that he can concentrate much better than he ever could. There was also the little fact that while he was meditating, he started remembering things from when he was ascended and that was great, but it was also incredibly frustrating not knowing exactly why this was happening to him. But, as Lya said, he should also be very patient and that in time, everything should become clear. He just hoped it wouldn't be centuries before he understood what was happening to him. With the Nox, time was a very abstract concept.

He finally turned the last corner before reaching his room when he almost jumped to the ceiling like a scared cat.

"Nice timing," Aenea said.

"Aenea, what brings you here?" Liam said after turning toward her and especially after letting his heart slow down from the two hundreds heartbeats per minute it was only moments ago. He wouldn't put it past her if she did this on purpose.

"Nothing special, I was just in the neighborhood," Aenea said simply.

Liam didn't buy it. She was never just in the neighborhood, "Really."

Aenea also knew he didn't buy it, "Fine, I wanted to check up on you. There is some… concern upstairs about what happened the last time you ascended."

"What _did_ exactly happen, because… I have no clue?"

"Neither do we… or maybe the elders do, but they are not saying anything."

"Why you think they know something?"

"The way they behaved on the meeting we've had afterward. They were asking a lot of questions, but they were reluctant to say anything concrete," Aenea said before coming to the real reason why she was here. "Did Oma visit you after that?"

"No… why?"

"I can't find her. I don't even know if it's related, but she wasn't at the meeting and I haven't seen her ever since."

"That's strange? She's not the type to just vanish for so long," Liam said not having a clue where she could be.

"Yeah that's what I was thinking." Aenea looked at Liam for a long moment before continuing, "By the way, you look different."

Liam shrugged, "Yeah, I get that a lot lately."

"From whom?" She was a little puzzled who could have noticed.

"Thor noticed something, but mostly Lya."

"Of course, the Nox. They know a lot, but they say very little. What did she say exactly?"

"Not much really. Just that I've changed, that's all. And that I should... exercise. Whatever that means."

"Really? Did she say why?"

"Nope, and believe me, I tried," Liam said, also deciding it was time to change the subject. He didn't like too much being the center of attention and even less when he knew so little about what was happening to him. "What is going on with the Ori?"

"Nothing has changed. They are still coming. I don't know how or when, but they are. We are trying everything we can to block them from seeing this region of space, but if their followers come here, we won't be able to do anything about them."

"Yeah, I thought that much. Let's hope the Second Great Alliance will be able to stop them no matter what they decide to throw at us."

"To what end Liam?" Aenea asked with some concern.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, the problem are not their followers, the problem are the Ori."

"I can't fight the Ori, but I will be damned if I let those religious freaks roam free in this galaxy!"

"And for how long you are going to do that?"

"For as long as it takes."

"Liam, you must understand that the Ori have an entire galaxy of followers at their disposal. They can send waves after waves; it will be a slaughter," Aenea explained, trying to make him understand that this could not end well.

"I know, but I have no choice in the matter, except if you know of a way to fight the Ori directly."

"I can't talk about it and you know it."

"No, I don't know it. There is a way to fight them, but you're not willing to share. Why is that?"

"Our law of noninterference goes both ways, and you know it. We can't interfere with the lower plane, but we can't allow anything that will do the same from your end either."

"You know, as days go by, I'm more and more certain that I made the right decision to descend."

"I'm glad you approve of your own decisions Liam," Aenea said a little angry at him. He did after all left her behind.

"I asked you then if you wanted to join me, so you can't just keep blaming me for everything."

"Ah yes… the allure of spending the next ten thousand years in a stasis pod. How could I ever refuse such an offer," Aenea retorted with as much sarcasm as she could muster.

"It's not like you would remember it. The point was to prepare for the time _after_ the ten thousand years in stasis."

Aenea understood that they were going back to the same discussion they already had countless times before, and she wasn't planning on having another one, "I… I have to go. If you see Oma, tell her I'm looking for her."

Liam sighed, "I will."

Aenea nodded, disappearing into thin air the next moment. Liam sighed again. He really didn't like fighting with her, but somehow every conversation they had, ended the same way.

Liam entered his room, going straight for the shower. He had a long day in front of him and the next task was the only fun part of it. Somehow, while Jack had been on his ship for the three days in which he played dead for the rest of the universe, he managed to make Liam promise him he would let him fly the Defiant. At the time, Liam believed it would be just another promise he would not have to keep, or at least there was no expiration date on it, but he soon found out how relentless Jack can be when he wants something. From that point on, there wasn't one meeting with him where he didn't ask him when was he going to fly the Defiant. Since they were in the process of making an alliance, he knew that the frequency of meetings could only increase in the future, and he realized it was easier to let Jack have his wish fulfilled rather than spending every meeting trying to come up with some excuse.

He finished his quick shower and dressing into his usual robes. His ship was already in the Solar system waiting for the Defiant to arrive, so he wasn't in any hurry. Still, he wanted to spend some time with Jack before their little trip so that he could discuss a few points with him. He used the teleporter outside his room and found himself standing on the bridge the next moment. He checked his sensors and found that Jack was in his office alone. He instructed the ship to beam Jack directly to the bridge and the next moment a little confused Jack was standing in front of him.

"Liam, is the Defiant here?" Jack asked the moment he got his bearings back.

"No, not yet; it will be here soon. There is something else I wanted to discuss with you before we go on our little trip."

"Alright, what's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about the Jaffa. With everything that is going on, I had to redirect a lot of resources to other tasks and I've lost touch with what is happening with the Jaffa and I think you're the right person to ask."

"I didn't know you were interested in the Jaffa?"

"I'm not, not directly anyway, but I am interested in the Jaffa not falling apart. No matter how strong we are and how strong we will become once our alliance is formally established, I still think that the best thing for the Milky Way Galaxy is if the Jaffa stay united."

"That's true. We already had some problems with Jaffa who have left the FJN."

"Problems? What kind of problems?"

"Well, those who have decided to leave the FJN usually end up as mercenaries, mostly working for the Lucian Alliance."

"And more of them join the Lucian Alliance, stronger they become."

"Yup, and we don't like it very much. It's also bad for our relationship with the FJN when we come across the Lucian Alliance and we end up shooting a Jaffa. We then have to explain to the FJN why we had to shoot them. They don't look at it as if he was a mercenary working for pirates. They look at it from a more personal point of view, and especially Gerak."

"I get it. You shot a Jaffa and not a member of the Lucian Alliance."

"Exactly. Most of their Council understands, but Gerak is using this to alienate as many Jaffa as he can, also probably twisting the story a little. The result is we have to fight the Lucian Alliance with gloves so that we don't kill any Jaffa while, at the same time, they don't have the same consideration for our people."

"Well, once we formalize our little alliance we can work out a few joint missions to take out the Lucian Alliance, but for now I'm more concerned on how stable the FJN really is."

"It isn't. For now there are only rumors, but we think Gerak is preparing to leave the FJN and form another nation together with the more radical members who are willing to follow him."

Liam was perplexed. This was even worse than he thought, "When did you hear about this?"

"Klaus told me a few days back. I don't really know where he gets the information, but most of the time he gets it right."

"Is there a way to marginalize Gerak somehow? I mean, from what I know, the man is a moron."

"You don't have to tell me that, I have firsthand experience, but history shows that being smart is not a prerequisite for becoming a leader or to have people follow you. Actually, sometimes I believe it is the opposite."

Liam had to admit, on too many occasions a person would become a leader just by raising his voice and playing on people's dissatisfaction with the current state they were in, "And he is playing on the Jaffa's tradition, which the rest of the Council is trying to change. That way is easy to get supporters."

"And the fact that military strength, which Gerak still has majority of, is a crucial factor, he has no problem in finding a lot of followers. We think that if Gerak decides to split right now, almost half the Jaffa in the FJN will follow him."

"And inevitably they will start fighting against each other. If the remaining Jaffa in the FJN succeed and flourish, those who joined Gerak will be envious and war will be almost inevitable. Not to mention how they intend to split their planets." Liam concluded.

"That's what Teal'c and I believe might happened, which will inevitably force us to intervene and I don't have to tell you that we don't need another enemy right now."

"Yeah, and you don't know half of it," Liam spoke, not actually understanding what he just said at loud.

Jack was curious now. For what he knew, there was nothing he didn't know, and now Liam was saying he didn't know the half of it, "Care to elaborate?"

Liam snapped from his thoughts, finally realizing what he said. He sighed, no reason to keep it secret any longer, "I was waiting for our alliance to be finalized before I brought this before you and the Asgard, but I see no reason to keep it a secret anymore," Liam said, pausing shortly before continuing. "Are you aware that my people had some special abilities, like telepathy, telekinesis and healing abilities?"

"Yeah, Aiyana, the Alterran woman we found in Antarctica was able to heal my team and a few other people from some kind of disease we had no cure for. Even I was capable of healing somebody after the head sucking machine downloaded the repository of knowledge into my head."

Liam was a little stunned. He didn't know about Jack's ability to heal somebody, "You did?"

"Yeah."

"I don't recall reading it in your reports."

"First of all, it's not nice reading other's '_top secret'_ reports, and secondly, probably nobody wrote it in any report. I didn't know about it until after Daniel told me."

Liam scrutinized Jack for a long time, "And after Thor erased the repository of knowledge you felt the same as before?"

Now it was time for Jack to look perplexed, "Yeah, why?"

Liam scratched the back of his head while thinking on how to say it, "Well, do you know how the repository works?"

"It downloads a ton of stuff into your brain."

"Yeah… that's only part of it. The repository downloads the knowledge immediately when you stuck your head in it, and stores it in a specific region of the brain. The second and the dangerous part is the change in the neural pathways that it performs in order for you to be able to access the downloaded knowledge. Only after this second step is finished, it starts changing another portion of the brain that could possibly give you those abilities like healing, telepathy and other stuff."

"Okay, I didn't get half of what you've just said and I still don't know where you are going with this."

"The problem is that the repository was made for Alterran physiology and not human, and a human would have certainly died if the process reached the last stage of the transformation."

"But I didn't die," Jack said as a matter of fact.

"Exactly my point," Liam concluded.

"What _is_ your point?" Jack asked really not getting the point.

Liam sighed, "My point is that you must have Alterran ancestors if you're still alive."

"Oh, that. Are you sure?"

"I am."

"Well, it's possible that those who returned from Atlantis… mingled with the local humans and…" Jack tried to explain, but he saw Liam shaking his head. "What?"

"I said Alterran, not Lantean."

"What's the difference?"

"The Lanteans are advanced humans, but they are not Alterrans and they were never able to use the repositories of knowledge we made. And there is something else that troubles me."

Now Jack was puzzled, "What?"

"Your Alterran ancestor… or ancestors, must be only a few generations back, and not thousands of years. Maybe three generations at the most. Maybe four, if both of your parents had Alterran ancestors."

"So my grand grandfather or grand grandmother were Alterran?"

"Yes, and that begs the question, how in the hell were there Alterrans on Earth less than a hundred years ago?"

"That's your big question? What does it matter?"

"You still don't get it, don't you?"

"Apparently, I'm not," Jack retorted a little pissed.

"Jack, the Alterran are an extinct race. If you don't count me or the higher plane of existence, the only way for them to having been on Earth a hundred years ago is if they descended like I did."

"Oh, now I get it… I think."

"Jack, your ancestors were ascended beings sometime in the past, that's the big revelation."

"I got it. Look can we change the subject. You still didn't tell me the half part I don't know."

Liam smiled seeing that his talk was making Jack uncomfortable, "You're right. As I said the Alterrans showed signs of having developed various types of mental abilities, and I'm also one of them. A few months back I had a dream that actually wasn't a dream, but a vision of the future."

"Okay, what did you see?"

"What I saw wasn't pretty. I saw that somewhere in the future we will face another enemy. I don't know who they are, but in my vision we were in a battle against them and they had thousands of ships descending upon us."

"Did you just say thousands?"

"I did. We were also much stronger. We had a considerable fleet there with hundreds of ships, some of them I've never seen before, but I can tell you that the odds were not in our favor."

Jack was thoughtful. He couldn't even imagine how a fleet comprised of thousands of ships would even look like. The biggest fleet he saw so far was Anubis's fleet when he'd attacked Earth, and that was a couple of dozens Ha'taks, "Do you know how far in the future this is going to happen?"

"Well, I worked on the number of ships we had in my vision, and calculated the shortest time it would take for the Asgard, the Terrans and the Guardians to build so many of them separately. Then I made two distinct assumptions. The first was how many ships we would be able to build if we _didn't_ know they were coming, as if I never had the vision, and the second if we knew they were coming. In the first case it would take a minimum of ten years to build so many ships, and in the second case a minimum of five years. Of course this is if we don't lose any ship against other enemies in the meantime."

"And what do you think is the real case hear, the first or the second?"

"It's not just what I believe as what I hope. I hope for the first case, but where we still have the ability to change what wiil happen. If not, we are screwed, because it means we can't change anything of what I saw."

"You do know what they say about Hope?"

"I do and I'm not planning on hope. I also know that if we can change the future it also means that the time when they are going to show up can change, and not only for the better. That's why I was planning to inform you and the Asgard the moment we sign our alliance, so that we can start preparing for them."

"Great. We have to fight who knows how many enemies that we already know about, knowing that in the future we will face something even worse."

"Well, I'm trying to look at this from another angle. We now know they are coming, and that is an advantage for us."

"Yeah, I'm not a very optimistic person."

"Well, you should be. From what you've gone through in the past ten years and how you managed to come out alive every time, it's almost a miracle."

Jack was again thoughtful. He didn't like the news he just got, but he had to admit, they had always won even against impossible odds, and in most cases they were the underdog. Now they weren't the little guy anymore and there was real hope for them. Still, the image in his head of thousands of ships converging on them could not leave him a sense of confidence, "From your calculations you think that, now that we know they are coming, we can increase our production almost twofold. I'm not so sure about it."

"I am. You are forgetting that in a week we won't be three separate races anymore. We will work together and help each other. When one of us has a problem, an enemy to fight or needs resources, the other members will step in and help as much as they can. That will greatly increase our efficiency."

"I hope you're right about this."

Liam nodded, wanting to reply something, but he didn't have time to say anything when the console in front of him beeped. "The Defiant is here. We can beam aboard the ship right now if you want. We still have to finish our little discussion about the Jaffa and try to find a way to save them, but we can do that later."

"Sure…" Jack said, but he was actually still thinking about Liam's big revelation. He then remembered something important, "Oh, I hope you don't mind, I invited Daniel and Sam to come along."

"Not at all," Liam said already checking his sensor to see where they were. He pressed a few buttons, beaming Jack and him to the Defiant. Daniel and Sam followed shortly after, the ship having automatically activated the beaming array for a side-by-side transport directly to the Defiant. Daniel and Sam looked startled for the next few seconds. No matter how often it happened to be beamed without any warning, it still took some adjustment.

The crew and the three Terrans exchanged pleasantries, getting to know each other a little better. Jack stepped closer to the pilot and started learning the various controls he would need to fly the ship. In the meantime, Liam brought up the same topic to Daniel and Sam that he had with Jack, wanting to know what they thought about the Jaffa situation and if they had any idea on how to solve it. Sam didn't know much about it since she had other things to worry about related to her department and she didn't have the time to think about the Jaffa and their predicament. Daniel on the other hand was very involved in the entire ordeal, and he even thought he had an idea on how to solve their problem, but it wasn't without drawbacks. The main idea was that if the Terrans and the FJN formalized their alliance, Gerak and other likeminded Jaffa would never leave the FJN, fearing they would be much weaker than the allied FJN. The drawback was that if they pushed such an alliance while Gerak was still in the Council, they could decide to reject the alliance and with all the rules and regulations they would have to agree on, it was a very real possibility. Many Jaffa would not like all the limitations such an alliance would bring to them and the Terrans could not concede much because of the rules they agreed in the Second Great Alliance. Liam understood the idea and he believed it had merits, but he also thought the timetable was all wrong. It would need to happen too fast, and even if they succeeded in forming the alliance, he thought it would eventually crumble because they rushed into it, especially with Gerak advocating against it.

Jack finally got the gist of it. He sat in the pilot's seat, which of course brought a massive smile on his face. Without waiting any longer, and without knowing the ship's inertial dampeners were not set to completely negate the massive acceleration of the ship, he engaged the sublight engines to full throttle. The crew was pushed against their seats with the force of several gees, all protesting in unison, but Jack wasn't even noticing their screams. He made a tight turn around Liam's much bigger ship, the ship giving him a much greater sense of the speed and maneuverability than if there was nothing else around them. After the turn, he pushed past the moon directed away from Earth and toward Saturn. He flipped the ship a few times, making everybody on the ship yell at him except for the pilot who was enjoying the ride almost as much as Jack did. He wasn't allowed to do things like that.

He finally steadied the ship once he reached maximum velocity, "Woo-hoo, this is fun!"

Daniel shook his head, "From where I'm standing… not so much."

The console in front of Jack started beeping for reasons he didn't know, "I didn't do anything, I swear!"

The captain checked his console, "The sensors are picking some strange distortion in front of us."

The moment the captain said those words the pilot moved immediately, exchanging seats with a very reluctant Jack, but he knew when it was time to leave the helm to somebody more experienced. The pilot took the controls, immediately trying to change the ship's course, but it was to no avail, "I can't change our course. Something is pooling us toward the distortion."

Liam had a face of utter frustration on his face, "That proves it. Only an Alterran has the bad luck to stumble upon a spatial anomaly on his first test flight."

Jack turned to face Liam with narrowed eyes, which made Liam flinch, understanding that maybe Jack didn't want anyone else to know about what he thought about his ancestors. Liam turned and saw Daniel's curious expression on his face. He decided to say something else in order to steer the conversation, "What are the scans telling us? Is the anomaly some kind of wormhole?"

"No, it's not giving out the usual emissions. I have no idea what it is," the Captain replied.

"I still can't change course. The pull is too strong," the pilot yelled.

The captain looked at the fast approaching anomaly on the main screen. He knew they were going in, "People, fasten your seatbelts. I don't think this will be an enjoyable ride."

As the captain finished his sentence, the ship started trembling and they all felt the pull increase as they were coming closer to the anomaly. The ship entered the mouth of the anomaly, the shacking greatly intensifying with the people inside barely managing to remain in their chairs. The lights flickered and they could sense the tremendous strain the ship was under. At that moment, Liam thought how he would very soon found out how good his ship's designs really were. The next few shakes were so hard that Liam thought he had dislocated a shoulder. The lights and displays all around them shut down, but they didn't care. They were still alive and the shaking had stopped, which meant they finally went through.

"Status," the Captain yelled at his small crew.

It took a few moments for the backup systems to kick in so that the crew could check out the status of the ship, "Sir, backup systems have engaged, all primaries are offline."

It was bad and the captain knew it. The primaries were practically everything. It meant that the reactor, engines, shields and hyperdrive were all down. The only thing that was working was the life support through the backup power system, "Can you give us sensors so we can see where we are?"

The crewman manning the sensors worked frantically, on several occasions wanting to punch the console in front of him in order to make it work, but he knew it never works. Eventually the console gave him a reassuring beep, also displaying some data on the screen, "I have partial sensors. We are still in the Solar System, fifty-four light-seconds from Earth."

That made everybody on the bridge relax a little since it would be easy enough to reach Earth even in the conditions the ship was in. They should have known better.

"Uh… sir, something is wrong. The stars are not in the right place."

"Crap!" Jack swore. He had watched too many movies to not know what that meant, "Please tell me we are in the right… _time_."

The crewman looked at Jack puzzled, "Sorry… I can't tell you that."

"Oy… This is not how I envisioned my day," Jack said, clearly feeling depressed.

"_When _are we?" Liam asked calmly.

"We are somewhere in the fifth century Earth's time," the crewman replied after calculating the change in the position of the stars.

"Oh that is just great. The last time we went back in time, people at least didn't ride on horses," Jack stated, referring to the time they traveled back to sixty-nine.

While Jack was shouting about the unfairness of their situation, the captain was more preoccupied with the state of his ship. From the little information he was getting from his console, things were not looking good. The reactor received a pretty strong feedback surge while they were passing through the anomaly, the screen was displaying more warnings and system errors that a Christmas tree usually has decorations, and this was only the state of the reactor. He dreaded to even look at the rest of the ship's systems, which were probably in the same or worse condition.

The ship was slowly crawling toward Earth, mostly on inertia and with little help from the few thrusters still operational, but with much less juice than usual. Also, there was no inertial dampeners to lower the ship's mass and that meant no chance of landing. Not that they were planning on landing, but still it would have been a good thing to at least have that option. They intended to enter orbit around the planet and start repairs as soon as possible since the list of repairs the ship needed was growing with every passing moment as the crew checked more and more systems. From what they were able to check so far, the ship would need several days of work to even restart the main reactor and there was also the question of supplies, both mechanical and food for the crew and guests. If the repairs lasted longer than a week, they would need to go down to get at least some water, since the recycling system wasn't tied into the backup system.

Once they reached orbit, the sensors started receiving unusual readings coming from the ground. It wasn't much since only their passive sensors were working, but it was still enough to register emissions that, as everybody thought, should not be here in this time of human history. It was clear that some kind of power source was on the surface. It didn't take them long to come to a decision to check the location where the emission was coming from. While Liam was interested in the power source, Daniel was more interested in the history of fifth century England. Jack on the other hand was bored to death onboard the ship, so the three of them decided they would go down while Sam decided she would stay on the ship and help make repairs. She also had an ulterior motive. The opportunity to check out the inner workings of the ship was too great to pass it on.

Jack was already packing so much firepower that Liam thought he was planning on conquering England in record time. Liam had to explain to him that they should go down there in disguise and that a plasma sniper strapped on his back would be a dead giveaway. After a short but intense altercation about the pros and cons of having weapons versus being inconspicuous, they agreed to take only an energy pistol and a knife that they could hide under their robes. The small group moved to the small cargo bay where a Puddle Jumper was waiting for them. Jack's expression was enough for Liam to understand he wanted to drive the little ship down to England. Liam was reluctant, knowing how Jack's first test flight ended, but he wasn't a superstitious man, so he decided to let him pilot the ship.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth (…somewhere around the 5th Century)**

It took the ship five minutes to descend through Earth's atmosphere. They cloaked the ship once they were near their destination in order to avoid creating mass panic in the local populous. The ship touched ground and three people exited the rear of the ship, all in Alterran robes. It was amazing how Alterran robes could pass as the usual garments worn by people from practically any period in human history. The thing they didn't know though was the fact that those who wore similar robes in the fifth century Earth were thought to be wizards.

"Okay, everybody on the ground and roll over," Liam said.

Nobody liked it, but it had to be done. They lay on the ground and started rolling into the dirt. They had to make their clothes look old and used up, so they could blend with the local folks without raising too many questions.

Liam's small device, the one he was holding in his hand, was telling him the power source was still very distant and they still had four miles before reaching it. The reason why they landed so far was because the power source was located inside a small city with a large castle in the middle and they didn't want anyone to see them exiting the cloaked puddle jumper.

Daniel thought about the whole situation and he believed he knew which city it was, "I think the city we are going to is Camelot."

Jack stopped walking, looking pensively at Daniel, "Camelot? King Arthur… the round table… Excalibur. That Camelot?"

"I think so. And you forgot to mention Merlin," Daniel said, but he also noticed Liam's pondering expression and decided to ask "What do you think?"

Liam turned toward Daniel, deciding to answer with another question, "Why here?"

"I don't understand?" Daniel replied.

"Why did we end up here? The anomaly brought us here, where there is a strange energy signature and probably where a former ascended being lives. I don't believe this is just a coincidence." Liam explained.

"Well, if you put it like that it does look kind of improbable."

"Exactly, and I think we are going to find a lot more than just a power source in Camelot."

Jack decided to say something, "Well let's hope we find a way to go back home. Everything else is not that important."

Daniel was a little pissed at Jack's defeatist attitude, "Jack, you really don't have the adventurer spirit. How many people in the _entire_ _universe _can say they had the chance to travel true time, see incredible things from their past, or other stuff like that?"

"Daniel, I don't mind visiting the past, but I mind being _stuck_ in it with no idea on how to go back," Jack retorted back.

Liam turned toward Jack, "Is that why you're worried about? Being stuck here for the rest of our lives?"

"Of course it is. Why else would I worry about?"

"Jack, there is no reason to worry about that," Liam said.

"It isn't? Why not?" Jack was now puzzled by Liam's statement.

"Because traveling to the past is difficult and unpredictable, but traveling to the future is easy."

"How do you mean easy?"

"Think about it. Even if we couldn't recreate the anomaly that brought us here, I can always build us stasis pods where we can wait in stasis in order to return to our time. Or, if you prefer, we can modify our ship to travel close to the speed of light. Then we can fly it for the next fifteen hundred years while to us mere days would have passed. You see, I've already gave you two ways to return to our timeline in mere days, without the need for some spatial anomaly, wormhole passing near a solar flare or anything that complicated."

"Oh… I haven't thought about that. Well, then we can really enjoy our stay here," Jack said cheerfully. He should have known that such statement never goes unpunished.

The three of them turned toward the sound of horses clearly moving fast toward their location. They stopped their walk, waiting for the next few moments before they finally saw half a dozen horsemen clad in metal armor charging towards them with swords in hand.

Jack watched the approaching cavalry not really that impressed. On TV they usually looked much more menacing. Jack thought it must be because of the lack of special effects. Probably a slow motion effect would make them look much better, and the clanking sound of their armor was also too funny to take them seriously. They looked worse than the Jaffa in _their _armor, "Should we shoot them?"

Liam shrugged, "Let's first find out who they are… and then we shoot them," Liam concluded already predicting what the outcome of their conversation would end up to be.

"Shouldn't we try to limit our actions in the past? I mean, wouldn't killing six people change the course of history in a considerable way?"

Liam thought about it for a moment, "I don't think so, the chance of changing something important is really small since people with the sword die by the sword very often in this period, but you are right, we should try to minimize our actions as much as we can. After we talk to them and they still decide to kill us, we will only stun them."

"You're pretty sure they will want to kill us, aren't you?"

Liam thought about it a little more, thinking on the period they were in and deciding his estimate was right, "I am."

The six horsemen reached them, stopping mere meters from them and pointing their long swords at them. Liam clearly didn't like the way those people were acting towards them and he could feel his blood pressure rise as a result. He didn't know how Jack and Daniel were feeling about it, but he was sure they were ready to bring forth their guns at a moment's notice.

"Wizards, this is not your lucky day!" one of the horsemen shouted with a smug expression.

Jack turned toward Liam, "Wizards?"

Liam remained fixed at the man who spoke first, "What gives you the impression we are wizards?"

"Your clothes… wizard," the same man replied.

"Haven't anyone told you not to judge a person by the clothes he's wearing?" Jack snapped back with a mocking expression.

Liam looked at Jack, not really knowing if he really wanted for this to end badly, or he was just completely oblivious of what their reaction would be. He decided to add something, "We are not wizards."

The man was clearly thinking about what Jack had just told him, not understanding if this man was mocking him or not. The fact that they had six swords pointed at them was contradicting that theory since, who in his right mind would mock them in such a situation, but he had to admit, he saw a lot of fools in his life so, it was possible. The other problem was that he didn't know what these wizards could do and how dangerous they were, "Why are you wearing wizard's clothing then?"

Liam saw Jack wanting to say something, but his narrowed eyes told Jack to shut up before saying something they would regret later. Liam knew that in most cases telling the truth was the best course of action. Still, he decided that, in this case, lying was a much better one, "We were robbed from everything we had. We clearly didn't want to walk through the woods naked and these old garments were the only thing we could find."

The man thought how this was a plausible explanation, even though the robes they were wearing didn't look that old to him. Apparently they should have rolled in dirt a little longer. "Where are you from?"

"We are from a remote land called America," Liam lied, also noticing the baffled expression on both Jack and Daniel's face.

"America? Never heard of it."

"I've told you, it is a very distant land. We spent many moons in the sea to reach this land, only to be robbed of everything we owned."

The man was troubled. He really didn't know what to believe, "You will follow us to Camelot, where the King will decide your fate."

Liam nodded, deciding that for now it was the best course of action, Camelot being their destination anyway so there was no reason to protest, "We will follow you to see your king. May I ask what the name of your king is so I can address him properly once we meet?"

"King Uther Pendragon of course."

Liam, Daniel and Jack exchanged looks, Daniel's look telling Liam he understood they were in an earlier period when Arthur still wasn't king, and Jack's look telling Liam he didn't have any idea who Uther Pendragon was. Liam couldn't take this fact as proof of Jack's ignorance since the only reason he knew about Earth's history was because of the Repository of Knowledge. The device was also capable of being programed with whatever knowledge you had in digital form. That way, it was easy for him to learn, while others had to learn things the old-fashioned way.

The three of them followed the six armed horsemen to Camelot, the city magnificent and proud the same way they read about it or, in Jack's case, watched movies about it. There were a lot of people there too, especially around the fortified castle in the middle of the city. They reached the inner gate, and to their utter astonishment, nobody checked if they had any weapons on them. Liam thought it was because they feared they were wizards, and wizards don't use conventional weapons anyway. They also didn't know they could carry guns small enough to fit under their robes, but also capable of killing everybody there without too much difficulty. The three of them were then brought directly in front of the king who was sitting in his throne chair in a very large room, impeccably decorated to show how rich the king was. The king on the other hand didn't look much of anything. He was definitely a few pounds to heavy and it looked as if he hadn't left the throne in ages.

Again, Liam, Daniel and Jack looked at each other, not really knowing what to expect from the king. One thing Liam did know, they were very close to the power source.

"Kneel down before the king!" one of the guards yelled, clearly addressing the three of them.

Jack looked at Liam and Daniel with a _'are they kidding' _kind of look, "I'm not getting on my knees."

"Jack."

"What Daniel?"

"Don't be an ass; is not the right time."

"Daniel, I watched this movie and it _never_ ends well," Jack retorted angrily.

"Jack, everything is under control," Liam said to Jack.

Jack sighed, reluctantly agreeing to do what was asked of him and joining Liam and Daniel who were already on their knees, "Just for the record, I don't approve of this."

"What is their crime?" the King asked with what Liam thought to be a very depressing voice.

"They are believed to be wizards sire," the same man who brought them here replied.

"So why didn't you kill them already?" the king asked with the same tone of voice.

That made the three people knelling on the floor think about how smart it really was to follow those men here. Maybe shooting them, as Jack had suggested, wasn't such a bad idea after all. Jack looked at Liam, "Are you sure you have everything under control?"

Liam gave Jack a reassuring look, even though he wasn't sure about anything right now.

"Silence!" a guard yelled after hearing Jack speaking.

Jack's tolerance for the weird had already reached the highest possible level. He faced the guard with his eyes narrowed, clearly in a threatening manner, which made the guard flinch fearfully. Apparently, there was a lot of fear around wizards and, as far as these people knew, they were full-blown wizards with who knows what kind of powers.

"They were brought before you, my king, because they claim to be innocent. They claim they were robbed while traveling from a far land and these were the only robes they could acquire."

The king slightly changed position in his chair, scrutinizing the three new arrivals in front of him, "Where have you found these wizard's robes?"

Liam thought about it for a moment, his fear being that if he said they stole them and the king believes them, they could still be found guilty of theft and he didn't know what would be worse, "We were lucky we found them in the woods, not very distant from where your man found us. If we didn't, we would have had to walk naked through the cold."

The king chuckled at Liam's words, "Maybe it would have been better if you did walk naked. Wizards are not well received in my kingdom."

"Our apologies your majesty, we did not know garments such as these are usually worn by wizards. From where we come from, there haven't been wizards for many seasons," Liam apologized, knowing they were still not out of the wood, and he really didn't like how the king behaved.

The king was curious now, "There are no wizards in your kingdom? Where is such a land?"

"We came from a very distant land. It had taken us several moons of sailing through the Ocean Sea to reach your land's shores" Liam explained to the king knowing that they didn't know what the Atlantic Ocean was.

"Through the Ocean Sea? Your land is indeed very distant. Why would you go on such a perilous journey?"

"Your majesty, we are explorers in search of new lands and friendship with other kingdoms. We heard of your kingdom and we were bringing gifts to your majesty, when we were attacked. We were lucky to have been taken hostages. Many of our people were not so fortunate. We were eventually capable of freeing ourselves and escape our captors," Liam was so deep in lies that there was no going back.

The only thing that the king registered in Liam's speech was the _'gift'_ part, "You were bringing gifts? What kind of gifts?"

"Gold, jewelry and garments of the finest quality, all as a sign of our good intentions toward your majesty," Liam explained.

"And you claim to have been robbed in my kingdom?" the King said angrily.

"Your majesty, I do not know where exactly we were robbed, but it was no more than a day walk in the direction where the sun sets down."

The King was angry, and it showed. He motioned to one of the knights in the room who immediately stepped closer to him. The king had instructed the knight to take a patrol in search for the alleged thieves. The knight motioned to a few other knights to follow him and they immediately left the room. The king turned back toward Liam, "My knights will find the thieves and murders who attacked you and they will return what had been stolen from you. You have my word," the king said, motioning to a servant, the servant leaving the room immediately while the king continued, "There is still the need to prove you are not wizards."

Liam's hopes suddenly went down. He didn't know what kind of test they could possibly perform to prove they were or weren't wizards, but he knew that such tests would usually end badly for those being tested. He had knowledge of few such tests, and he didn't like them very much. He remembered that on Earth, to prove somebody wasn't a witch, they would strap a heavy rock on them and toss them into the river. If the person floated, it meant he or she was a witch. If not, it would prove they were mere humans with no magical powers. The problem was that the tested person would drown, proving you were not a witch, but also dying in the process. This all had happened much later in human history, the Church the one to perform such cruel tests, and Liam wasn't sure if humans in the fifth century had similar tests to check if somebody was a wizard or if they had some other methods.

Jack and Daniel also had a troubling look on their faces, knowing that proving the improvable could not be an easy task and that it could end up very badly for them. Jack turned toward Liam, "Any idea how they intend to prove we aren't wizards. I mean, I would really like to have my head and other body parts still attached to the rest of my body after they finish."

Liam turned toward Daniel as the designated expert, "What do you think?"

Daniel shrugged, "I don't know. I know what they did with witches, but that was in another period entirely. From what I know, the idea of wizards and sorcerers was not a very spread one in this period, and usually there was no test to prove it. If somebody was thought to be one, they would execute him immediately, no test involved in proving his guilt."

"So, no idea of what the test could be?" Liam asked.

"Well, the only thing that I can think of is if they have another wizard who will determine if we are in fact wizards. It was believed that wizards could sense each other. Of course, the wizard was not a real wizard and he would in most cases found those guilty, more to prove his usefulness than anything else," Daniel concluded with a somber note.

"Oh, that's just great. So a cheap magician will perform some parlor tricks while checking us out and conclude we are wizards, and our heads will roll the next second," Jack said frustrated. "Can we shoot them now?"

"Not yet, we always have that option. Let's first see what the test is." Liam concluded, but at the same time thinking how Jack's suggestion would probably become a reality.

It didn't take long for the servant to return with an old man in tow. Daniel was the first to notice the similarity with the Merlin's hologram he'd seen in the caves when Vala forced him to go look for the treasure.

Merlin stepped closer to the king, "What do you want?"

The three of them didn't miss the antagonistic tone of voice Merlin used to address the king. It was strange since usually people who addressed _any_ king in such a manner would lose their heads the next moment.

The king as well wasn't happy about the way Merlin addressed him, but for some reason he let it slide. "Those people claim not to be wizards. They claim to be explorers having been robbed of all of their possessions, and the wizard robes they are wearing is because they found them in the woods. I want you to test them if they are wizards or not."

A very pissed Merlin stepped toward the three kneeling man, "Rise."

The three men complied and Merlin started his _investigation_ if they were indeed wizards. He checked Daniel first, grabbing his head with his hands and checking for signs. Merlin sensed something different about him, but he couldn't fathom what exactly. The next was Liam, grabbing his head the same way as he did with Daniel, but he immediately sensed something else. Merlin stepped back in utter puzzlement, "Alterran?"

"Lantean," Liam greeted him, smiling at the same time.

Merlin understood now wasn't the time to ask the thousands of questions that were swirling in his head at that moment, deciding to continue his routine check and leave the questioning for later. He stepped in front of Jack, doing the same theatrics as with the two previous subjects. This one was even stranger. He didn't know what to sense. Was he human or Alterran? It didn't matter; he needed to give an answer to the king before he became suspicious. "I'm not sensing any magic in them. As far as I can tell, they are simple people.

Jack felt a little hurt by being called simple, but he knew it wasn't the time to bring the matter forward. The king, on the other hand looked relieved, "You have proven your innocence. You will be my guests until we find those responsible for robbing you, and I assure you, they will be punished accordingly." The king turned toward his servant before continuing, "Find them adequate accommodations in the castle, and be certain they have everything they need."

The servant bowed to the king before approaching Liam, Daniel and Jack, "If you would like to follow me, I will show you your accommodations."

Liam turned toward the king also bowing in gratitude, "We are very grateful for you generosity your majesty."

The king motioned for them to leave, apparently having enough of this, before turning toward his advisor and asking what was next on his list of today's duties. The three of them turned and exited the king's chambers, following the servant to their new accommodations. Three adjacent rooms had been prepared for them and different robes had been brought so they could change into something less conspicuous. After changing their clothes, they gathered all together into Jack's room. It didn't take long for a very impatient looking Merlin to show up.

"Who are you?" Merlin asked.

Liam turned to face Merlin, "Oh, that's a very long story."

"I have time." Merlin replied simply, "What is an Alterran doing here? Are you here to stop me?"

"Stop you? From what you think I'm here to stop you?" Liam asked not knowing what he was referring to.

"To find a way to fight the Ori," Merlin answered, but he was already sensing this wasn't the reason they were here.

"No, I'm not. If anything, I would like to help you, but I don't think the others would like that very much." Liam answered.

That made Merlin think hard for a moment, "So, you are also working against the others' wishes?"

"More or less, but the whole story is much more complex than that."

"I can see that. You are really a strange bunch. What about you?" Merlin asked Daniel.

"What about me?"

"You feel… strange. You are human, but there is also something else I'm sensing in you."

Jack stepped in answering the question, "Oh, that's probably because he ascended a while back… or _will_ ascend a while back is maybe a better way to explain it. I'm a little confused."

"What?"

Jack sighed, "We are from the future. More than fifteen hundred years in the future."

"What?" Merlin repeated the same question.

Liam decided to finally start giving some answers in an orderly fashion because, if they continued like this, they would still be here in a year, nobody wiser. "We have stumbled upon some strange anomaly that brought us back in the past and it almost destroyed our ship in the process. We were able to detect a faint energy signature originating from here, so we decided to investigate since we all know such energy should not exist in the fifth century."

Merlin thought about what Liam said, before raising an eyebrow, "When did that anomaly show up?"

"More or less, ten hours ago. Why?" Liam asked also noticing the strange expression Merlin had.

"Ups!" Merlin said sheepishly.

"How do you mean ups?" Liam asked, looking intently at the wizard.

"I think it must have been my experiment that went south. I was experimenting with inter-dimensional energy exchange, and it didn't go as I predicted."

Daniel turned toward Liam, "That explains why we were brought in _this_ period. Not a coincidence after all."

Merlin also remembered something else, "How did you succeed in ascending? Even if you are from the future, you still haven't reached the necessary level to ascend?"

Daniel thought about how best to answer, "I had help, Oma to be more precise."

"Of course, Oma was always the one to worry more about individuals rather than looking at the bigger picture." Merlin replied.

"That's Oma." Liam added.

"You know her?" Merlin asked.

"We are old friends. We ascended somewhere in the same period." Liam answered.

"So, how come you are back?" Merlin asked still not getting the whole story.

"I descended even before your people left the Pegasus galaxy and went to the Andromeda galaxy. Then I've spent the next ten thousand years in stasis, waiting for the last ZPM factory to build enough ZPMs, before awakening and continuing preparing for the fight that would follow. At the time, I thought I would wake up and have to fight only the Wraith, but that ended up not to be the case. We have many more enemies."

"That explains why I never heard of you. While I was ascended you were in a stasis pod, and nobody talked about you upstairs."

"Yeah, my decision to return to the lower plane wasn't the most popular and I became more or less an outcast. Maybe you know my wife Aenea."

"I do. Aenea and Oma were very close while I was ascended."

"You have a wife?" Jack interjected.

Liam just smiled at Jack's question, not wanting to let the conversation drift in the wrong direction.

Merlin was also still confused, not really knowing what questions to ask first, "You said the Wraith won't be the only enemy. The Goa'uld?"

"No, not really. They are pretty much beaten up, thanks to them?" Liam said pointing at Daniel and Jack.

"I'm impressed; I didn't think humans from Earth will reach such a level to be able to fight the Goa'uld, not in such a short time anyway." Merlin said looking at Jack, still with a wary eye for some reason.

"Well thanks, but we also had help. The Asgard and the Jaffa rebellion helped a lot," Jack said proudly.

"So, who are those other enemies?" Merlin asked already dreading what the answer would be.

Liam smiled, knowing what Merlin's fear was, "Yes, the Ori are one of them."

"I knew they will eventually come." Merlin said.

Jack put an angry expression on his face, "Yes they did, thanks to you."

Now it was Merlin's time to be puzzled, "What did I do?"

"You left that communication thingy lying around for anyone to find it, and that guy over there found it and used it to contact the people in the Ori galaxy," Jack said pointing at Daniel as the other guilty party in the Ori affair.

Merlin had a puzzled look, trying to understand what the communication thingy could be, "What? What communication device?"

"Oh I don't know, a thing ye big, with a pointy crystal on top. Ring any bells?" Jack explained while showing the approximate dimensions of the device with his hands.

"Dammit! Where did you find it?"

Daniel explained the location of the cave and the whole story about how they'd found it and subsequently used it without knowing what it was until it was too late. Merlin retorted explaining that even if he did leave it, they should not have used it since they didn't know what it was. Jack reassured Merlin that he blamed Daniel for that as well, but also that this wasn't an excuse to leave it without any instructions attached to it. The conversation heated up, and also became very confusing when Liam stepped in explaining that, now that Jack told Merlin about it, Merlin would have to leave it in the cave if they didn't want to change the course of their own history. Liam also noted to Jack that, now that he told Merlin about the device, he was also responsible for the device being there, also trying to explain the paradox of cause and effect in a temporal loop, specifying there was no beginning or end in a temporal loop like the one they were in. Jack, pissed at Liam, explained that he stopped listening to him the moment he mentioned the word paradox and that everything that he said afterward was gibberish to him. Daniel on the other hand was silent the whole time, feeling guilty about the whole thing, but eventually he decided to explain that there was nothing they could do about it now, or at least he thought they couldn't, explaining that what happened _has_ _happened_ and that what _will_ happen also has happened. The four of them spent the next five minutes in silence utterly confused, since the conversation they just had had become a paradox in itself with no end in sight. The short break didn't work, since they restarted the conversation laying blame on who started the whole thing and it would have lasted for a lot longer if Liam didn't decide to stop it. Liam thought that these three could go on like this forever, the only positive thing being that he was the only immortal in the room. Still he had to stop it.

"Can we please finish this ridiculous blaming game and focus on what we are going to do next?"

The three other people in the room stopped talking, finally realizing the futility of their discussion. Liam took the initiative, not wanting to give them enough time to restart the entire discussion, "Merlin, do you know of a way to reverse the anomaly?"

Merlin thought about it for a moment, "I don't have to reverse anything, the spatial anomaly goes both ways. The only thing I have to do is carefully recreate the same conditions so that you can return in the proper timeline. The other problem is you'll have to modify your shields since the first time you went through it almost destroyed your ship. I will give you the necessary modifications that should greatly improve your chances."

"Good, the only problem now is to find out if the shields will work at all. The ship is pretty banged up."

"If you need any supplies just ask. I have a small manufacturing facility here."

Daniel was also interested in something else, more precisely in history, "On another note, what is your deal with Utter Pendragon. I saw the way you talked to him, and I didn't see a lot of love in there."

"That is because I hate the guy." Merlin answered with a disgusted tone of voice.

"You do? Isn't he the father of the future king Arthur?"

"He is, and that is the only reason I don't fry his ass. The boy shows great potential in becoming a great king one day, with the right guidance that is. That is the reason why I'm letting Utter Pendragon remain on the throne. Arthur is still too young, and the death of Utter could change him and not for the better. He is still his father after all."

"So you are here working on a way to defeat the Ori, while you wait for Arthur to come of age?"

"Not just that. I'm also helping Utter to expand his kingdom so that, when Arthur comes to age, he'll have a strong kingdom to run. I have great expectations for the boy."

"There isn't much about Arthur in history books. Most of it is folklore with contradicting facts, but what is certain is that he became a great king that united England."

"That is great to hear. In a way, is great to know that you left a mark in the history books."

The conversation was abruptly cut short when they heard people running in the outside corridor, and from the clanking sound it looked as knights were the one making the noise.

"You stay here. I'm going to check out what is going on," Merlin said, leaving the room the next moment. Liam decided it was a good time to check on how the repairs were coming along. He contacted the ship, the captain explaining the repairs were coming along well, but that it would be several more days until they could bring the reactor online. Liam explained what they'd found out and how, if they needed anything, Merlin could build it here. After half an hour, Merlin returned bringing bad news, not for them directly but for the kingdom. A large force was marching from the east to the city. A great battle was about to begin in less than a day. It was a direct result of Utter pissing off one of the bordering kingdoms and the enemy had many more warriors than Camelot currently had, another mistake of Utter who'd lost many men attacking another bordering kingdom. The strong walls of Camelot were the only defense against such an army. Plans were already in motion to bring most of the people inside the strong walls since staying outside would result in certain death. Jack didn't like it, also advising to bring down as many weapons as they could, but Merlin assured him he built Camelot's walls himself and that without something stronger than swords, the approaching army would crash against them unable to do anything more than that. It had taken a little more convincing before Jack conceded to let the matter drop. Liam was glad, but at the same time he called the Defiant and instructed the captain to send the schematics of several various types of weapons and armors just as a precaution. Jack and Daniel remained in their rooms while Liam followed Merlin to his lab. It was well hidden behind a holographic barrier that Merlin himself designed. Liam told Merlin how he would have great use for a scientist like he was, also explaining the exact situation with the Edenians and the Order he'd created. It didn't take long for Merlin to find a kindred spirit in Liam, the idea of joining him in the future and consequently joining the fight against the Ori, incredibly alluring to him, but he knew it would change history too much, especially now knowing that Arthur would become the great king he always hoped he would. After a long talk and after checking if the manufacturing facility was compatible enough to use the schematics the Captain sent to him, he decided to go in his room and spend some time meditating, still remembering what Lya told him about his need to train his mind and body. He thought it would be too strange to run around the castle jogging, and it would probably rise to many unwanted questions, but spending the afternoon in his room in peace was something he wouldn't have any trouble doing.

In the evening, the same servant came to their rooms to let them know they had been invited to participate in the evening's banquet the king decided to throw in their honor. After all, everybody believed them to be high dignitaries from a far land with friendly intentions, and they didn't mind having something to eat that weren't ship's rations. They all changed into robes they thought would be appropriate for such an evening event. They walked in the large room they had been previously admitted by the king, now embellished for the festivities with large tables in the middle and with many more people than it had been the case earlier that day. The only people who were missing were Merlin and the King. They knew Merlin wasn't coming. He had never been invited to such events, but also because he didn't like them either. On the other hand, the king's lateness was something to be expected. Jack was about to start eating the food in front of him, the smell making it difficult for him to resist, but Daniel told him that there was a great chance he would lose his head if he did it before the king arrived. Jack didn't like all this protocol, but the idea of losing his head made him wait, also making him lose a good portion of his appetite. Finally the king arrived and the feast began. It was good, Jack had to admit it, the wine and meat were worthy of a king. Not entirely strange since this was the real case here. During the meal, the king asked many questions about their kingdom, which Liam answered in as many details as he could fabricate in such a short time. Jack was amazed by how Liam could easily invent an incredibly accurate story, while at the same time being a complete figment of his imagination but also having several facts from their real life. The thing that was strange to Jack was that nobody was mentioning the incoming battle. Daniel explained that, throughout history, it was impolite to discuss politics or battle plans during the evening meal. The meal was supposed to be reserved to relax before going to sleep. The most prominent example was the Romans, whose people would under no circumstances discuss anything that could disturb the last meal of the day or anything after it. It was a way to make people go to sleep without thinking of the many hardships they had to endure during the day, knowing that tomorrow, at sunrise, they would have to wake up and probably go into yet another battle.

The meal ended and the three of them took off to their respective rooms after what had been a pretty long and tiring day. Tomorrow was going to be an even longer one, especially if the incoming battle won't be such an easy one as Merlin assured it would be.

The crew of the Defiant didn't have such luxury. Their working hours had continued even after what could barely be construed as dinner. They didn't mind though, especially Sam who was ecstatic at the opportunity of working on such a ship. It had taken her some time to understand the various systems, in many ways similar to their own, yet different in many others. The main distinction were the components which manufacturing process was based on matter transfer, with the ability of creating more compact components and greatly changing the way of repairing them. In most cases it was a matter of switching the broken component with a new one or, in rare cases, using some very precise tools, which Sam had never seen before and barely understood how they worked.

The repairs were on schedule, only few times having to leave the repairs for when Merlin could fabricate a component they didn't have replacement for. The captain believed the reactor would be up and running in two days' time at the most. It was almost midnight, ship's time, when they decided to leave the rest of the repairs for tomorrow and to take some well-deserved rest, rather than screwing up some of the repairs because they were too tired to even see what they were doing.

The night had been uneventful. The peace and quiet of a world that didn't have or even could have a nightlife as modern times did, allowed Jack and the rest of the people down on the planet surface a good night of sleep. Jack couldn't remember when the last time he'd slept so peacefully was. There were no sounds or urgent matters that would wake him up in the middle of the night. Then, he remembered how this was another reason he liked to spend some time in his cabin in the woods and how the incident that almost cost him his life, robbed him of the opportunity of a few days of quality sleep. He reminded himself that he should build another cabin. He didn't know if he would build it in Minnesota or maybe somewhere on Terrania on a remote location, but he knew he had to do it. Maybe there, he could even catch some real fish for a change.

The sound of a rooster was clear indication the sun had risen above the horizon and that it was time to get out of bed. Jack got out, immediately dressing what he thought was appropriate clothing and walking to the window to see the rising sun. The sunrise was beautiful, and it would have been even more so, if there wasn't for the army amassing on a hill less than a mile to the east. Jack scratched the back of his head, looking intently at the thousands of medieval warriors clad in armor. Some of them were pushing some large trebuchets and other types of siege weapons they intended to use to conquer the city. Liam and Daniel entered the room and approached Jack who had remained at the window the whole time.

"Nice view," Jack stated, "I think it would be even better if there weren't so many angry people on that hill, but still a nice view."

"Yeah, we really know when to pay visit to 5th century England," Daniel said in a sarcastic tone.

"Hey, at least nobody can say we have a dull life." Jack said, still looking at the growing army at the distant hill.

"That's true," Daniel said.

"Well, if what Merlin is telling us is true, they won't be able to breach the city walls," Liam said, reassuringly.

"And what if they do?" Jack asked.

"Then Camelot is in serious trouble. They have only three hundred warriors to defend the city, and that won't be enough in a close quarter's fight," Liam explained. "Come, I have something to show you."

Jack and Daniel followed Liam, clearly curious to see what he wanted to show them. They went through the many corridors that led to Merlin's lab in the basement of the castle. Merlin was waiting inside, working on some strange device. The device was virtually constructing something as if from thin air. Jack liked it. He would really like to have one of those back home.

Liam waited for Merlin to finish what he was doing. The device was currently finalizing the component he was creating on a small pedestal. Once finished, Merlin stepped away from the strange looking head-sucker he was using, "Are the components the captain requested finished?"

Merlin turned toward Liam, "They are."

"And the other things I asked for?"

Merlin didn't answer, instead he moved to a storage unit on the other side of the lab, "I still don't know why you wanted me to build these." Merlin opened the storage unit, showing his content to the others. Three armors and as many swords were inside and they looked very medieval, but they all understood they weren't just that.

"I know you think there is no chance they can breach the city walls, and I concur, it is indeed a slim chance, but I like to be prepared." Liam explained his reasons.

"What are does?" Jack asked, pointing at the content of the storage unit.

"Those are our armors and weapons."

"You really want us to wear these?" Jack asked again.

"If it comes to that, yes," Liam answered. "Look, we can't just start shooting people with our guns. People would freak. Instead I wanted to have something that can pass in this era as the usual weapon and armor, but I assure you, they are much more than that. They are made of a very light material, but at the same time, they are almost indestructible, at least against weapons from this era."

"You think we know how to use a sword? The last time I used a sword was… I have no idea when the last time was, and I'm not in the best of shapes either."

"I planned for that. The armor will help you in that regard," Liam said.

"It will? How?"

"The armor is not just a piece of metal. It gives you complete protection, and the suit underneath will boost your strength considerably. The sword is also made from a special material with the edge sharpened down to a molecular level. It can cut through practically anything."

Merlin was a little pissed nobody was giving him the credit he deserved, "I'm telling you, there is no rock they can throw at us that can destroy the walls, and the gates are… _enchanted_."

"Meaning?" Liam asked.

"Meaning, the gates have a forcefield that protects them from the outside. There is no way they can break the forcefield with some battering ram or anything else they might have. And the three hundreds strong knights are enough to stop anyone from trying to get across the walls."

"Fine, and I think is great you are so certain, but I still like to have a backup plan if all else fails," Liam said a little annoyed. "Why are those men even attacking Camelot?"

"Because Utter is an asshole, that's why. He knows that Camelot is impenetrable, and that gives him the confidence to do whatever he wishes."

"So, what did he do?" Jack asked.

"He insulted the neighboring ruler by rejecting his gifts. He thought they were too pitiful to accept them," Merlin explained, disgusted by the king's behavior.

"Nice guy this Utter fella. When will Arthur come to age?"

Merlin thought about it, "Well, he is ten now, and I would like for him to be at least twenty years old before becoming king so, I think I'm stuck with Utter for the next ten years."

"I'm not sure it will be that long," Daniel interjected. "From what I know, Arthur became king at the age of fifteen, if the history books are right about that."

Merlin looked relieved, five years sounding much better than ten, "That… is probably the greatest news I had in a very long time."

"By the way, when do you think those angry people on the hill will decide to attack?" Jack asked.

"I don't know, probably in the next few hours, once they set up properly, but sometimes the waiting can last for days." Merlin answered, knowing from experience how these battles go.

"So, we have enough time to go grab something to eat?" Jack asked.

"I swear, sometimes I think you can eat all day," Daniel said.

"I can… and sometime I even do eat all day," Jack said grabbing his belly, clearly deciding it is too empty for his taste.

"Fine, let's go eat something," Daniel said knowing full well who would eventually win the debate.

The four of them moved out of Merlin's lab, Jack and Daniel first, and Liam and Merlin following a few meters behind. It wasn't just a coincidence. Merlin had on purpose slowed down so he could discuss a few things with Liam in private. "So, strange group you have here. One of them is a former ascended being, with the help of Oma, and the other is… actually I have no clue who or what he is. I can't decide if he's human or Alterran, which begs the question. How did that happened?"

"I only discovered this recently myself. Only yesterday to be exact, when he told me he stuck his head in the Alterran Repository of Knowledge and survived the last stage of the transformation. The only way he could have done it is if he has Alterran ancestors and recent ones at that."

"You know what that could mean, do you?"

"I hope so."

"You hope. Why?"

"Because it means something is happening with our ascended siblings' way of viewing things."

Merlin looked at Liam for a long moment, trying to understand what he really meant, "What is the reason for you being here?"

"Here?"

"Not here in the 5th century, but here in the lower plane. And don't give me that crap about repairing the mess both of our people left behind, because I can sense this is not the whole story."

Liam walked in silence for the next two corridors thinking what, if anything, to tell Merlin. "I returned to the lower plane because I think that is what we should do."

"Who gave you that idiotic idea?"

Liam smiled, already having predicted Merlin's reaction. He knew there was a difference between him and Merlin, with the reason why he descended being very different from Merlin's, "Believe it or not, it was Oma who gave me the idea."

Merlin was puzzled. He didn't understand what Oma could possibly have had anything to do with Liam's decision to descend, "Oma? If anything, Oma has always preached the opposite."

"Exactly."

"Exactly what?" Merlin was now very confused.

"Oma has always helped humans reach enlightenment in order for them to ascend, and that made me think. What happens to them after they ascend?"

"They enjoy being ascended beings?"

"Well… that's probably true, but that's not where I was going with this. My question was do they reach the same level as Lanteans, or Alterrans?"

This was a sore point for Merlin, since he knew the Lanteans never reached the same level as the Alterrans did once they ascended. He also knew humans, helped by Oma, never ascended to the same level as neither Lanteans nor Alterrans. "No they don't."

"Do they eventually reach a higher level while ascended?" Liam asked another question.

"No, as far as I know, they don't," Merlin answered.

"Exactly my point. There is no progress in the higher plane. You are stuck where you land."

"But you can gain incredible knowledge while ascended. There are no limits to what you can learn, no matter who you were before ascending," Merlin said, "and the widespread understanding is that the higher plane is just another steppingstone towards something even higher."

"Well, that is the problem, isn't it? Do you know anyone who reached something more after having ascended, and I for one know ascended beings that have spent millions of years trying, me being one of them," Liam explained his reasoning.

"So you think that, whatever you have achieved in the lower plane is proportional to where you land in the higher plane."

"I do, and aren't the Ori proof of that? They use their followers to _artificially _increase their core energy levels by stealing it from them, but even then they have to constantly suck more energy from their followers if they want to retain it. They are not accumulating the energy, as it should be if there was a way to _evolve_ and progress in the higher plane."

Merlin was puzzled, what Liam was telling had some logic, but he still wasn't convinced, "But there is no guarantee that you can ascend back once you descend to the lower plane?"

"Look, I'm not telling that it is without risk, or that life in the higher plane isn't more… _comfortable_, I'm only saying that when you ascend you're stuck. It looks to me that it is more like a trap than anything else."

"But what can you really achieve if you descend. Can you really progress any further in the lower plane?"

"Well, that's a difficult question. We know that the core energy every living thing has is based on, both, your physical and mental qualities. If you change those, you should change the amount of core energy you transfer after you ascend."

"And how do you plan on changing your physical… oh, now I get it, but isn't that dangerous?"

"Again, I never said that it was easy, and you are also forgetting there's another way?"

Merlin thought about it for a moment, seeing that Liam wasn't about to just say what he meant, when he realized where he was going, "You mean by having children. Through children there is evolution, something that is impossible in the higher plane."

"Bingo!"

"Bingo?"

"Sorry, human term, very popular… don't know why though. It means you got it."

Merlin was thoughtful. This was a lot to take in, and it was also the reason he felt depressed, "Great! I was just thinking of leaving the lower plane once Arthur's destiny is on track, and now you gave me something else to think about. Damn you and your theories."

Liam chuckled, "Look, I'm not saying you shouldn't ascend, that's your decision."

"Ye-ye, I know that. Still, you gave me something to think about, and at the moment I'm really confused on what to do."

"Well, it's better to have something to think about, than blindly follow some preconceptions."

Merlin still looked at Liam with a pissed expression while they were entering a large room where they could take something to eat. Jack and Daniel had been much faster and had already taken some seats on the large table in the middle of the room. Liam and Merlin joined them, taking their own seats on the other side of the table. Soon, servants started bringing food on their table. Jack was more than satisfied with the amount and variety of it, while Daniel was a little less excited to eat roasted beef at breakfast, but since, baggers can't be choosers, he got on to it. They all ate in peace, nobody really having anything to discuss at the moment, until a strange sound took their attention. It was a crashing sound, coming from somewhere outside the castle. Merlin explained it was probably those angry people on the hill that launched a rock with their siege weapons, with the large Trebuchets probably being the one to send it. The other wanted to go and check it out, but Merlin told them it was only the beginning and that it will take some time before the real siege started. The others didn't understand how Merlin could be so calm at such a precarious moment, but they understood this wasn't Merlin's first rodeo. Camelot probably had survived many more attacks before.

Eventually the four of them finished their breakfast and moved outside the castle to see what was happening. As Merlin had predicted, nothing was happening. The previous shots were only to calibrate the siege weapons arc of fire. Still, many knights had already taken their positions, mostly on the tall walls surrounding the city since that was the only vulnerable part of the city. If Merlin was right, the only way they could assault Camelot was by climbing the walls and the warriors there were assurance they wouldn't succeed in their attempt. To Jack, it was very strange to see rows of archers waiting to fire up their arrows once the enemy decided to charge the castle. To him, it looked like he was in some kind of second grade movie and not in the real world. The large cauldrons with boiling oil were ready to be spilled on the unfortunate people brave enough or stupid enough to reach the walls. The idea of receiving the full load of such a burning and sticky substance on your head, made Jack shiver, also making him remember the time Baal had tortured him with various types of acid that would burn through your skin.

He didn't have time to think much about it when the first of many balls of fire flew toward the castle, some hitting the exterior side of the walls while others reaching much farther inside the castle hitting the ground in the main courtyard or some of the internal walls. There was no one in the courtyard as that was the most dangerous place to be while balls of fire were raining down from the sky and the people here knew that. Most of them were hiding inside the castle or on the opposite side, outside the range of the enemy's siege weapons. To Jack's relief, Merlin's estimates were right. The walls remained standing proudly without even feeling the rocks that were raining on them, and the interior of the castle was also mostly made of rocks so that the balls of fire didn't have the desired effect of lighting a fire inside the castle. Then Jack noticed the shouting from the enemy warriors charging toward the castle. The archers on the walls took their time, waiting for the approaching horde to come closer. Their commander gave the order and they lit the tip of their arrows. Hundreds of arrows flew into the air, only to fall down in the middle of the approaching warriors. Most of them continued running, but some had fell onto the ground. A few carts that were being pushed were caught on fire, but still they pushed forward. The archers fired again and again, with more enemy warriors falling down onto the ground after being hit by one or more arrows, but again, they pushed forward, now, almost reaching the footing of the walls. Some were carrying some ladders that they were trying to bring up on the walls so that they could eventually climb them, while others were bringing a strange looking battering ram in front of the main gate. The people on the walls started throwing large rocks on the people below. The battering ram and many people around it took a full load of boiling oil, unfortunate enough to stand right below. Still most people there were shielded, since the battering ram had been constructed in such a way to protect the people around it. The remaining people started pushing the large wooden ram with a metallic tip into the main gate, but the gate would just light up as it was usual when a forcefield was hit. The gate behind didn't even feel the hits.

"You see, their attack is futile," Merlin said to the three other people standing beside him.

"It looks that way," Liam stated also witnessing the impossible task the enemy had in front of them.

Jack was also about to say something, but then he noticed something strange. Several dozen people entered the courtyard, running toward the main gate. They looked like peasants, and Jack wasn't sure what they were doing down there. There was no reason for anyone to be there, and especially not peasants who should be hiding somewhere inside the castle or on the opposite side.

"So, Merlin, what would happen if someone opened the gate from the inside? Would the forcefield still stop anyone from entering?" Jack asked.

Merlin had a puzzling look on his face, "No, the forcefield is tied to the gate. It automatically deactivates when you open it. Why?"

"Well, because those peasants down there are opening the gate as we speak."

Merlin looked down and saw the people there trying to raise the internal metallic gates. Once that gate is raised they would only need to open the exterior wooden doors and the enemy could freely enter Camelot. "My God! Are they insane?" Marlin exclaimed, also seeing that the few guards who rushed down there were greatly outnumbered and unable to stop those people.

"No they aren't. They are working for the enemy," Jack explained. "Liam, Daniel, Let's go."

The three of them ran inside the castle directed toward Merlin's lab while Merlin remained, trying to inform other guards to run down in the courtyard and stop those people from opening the gates. The guards understood what Merlin was trying to tell them, immediately hurrying down to stop them. It was a race against time and Merlin had the clear feeling they wouldn't reach them in time.

Jack, Liam and Daniel reached the lab, thankfully being very close to where they were standing, and rushed to the storage unit. They were trying to put the armors on them as fast as they could, but it wasn't easy. The armors were incredibly difficult to put on. It took them almost five minutes to put them, but once they did, the suit underneath understood the wearer had finished dressing and activated its systems. They all felt the suit tightening to their body and powering up the artificial muscular system that would give them increased strength and speed. They took the swords and ran back toward the courtyard.

It was too late. The gate had already been opened and enemy warriors where pouring inside the castle while more were waiting outside to do the same. In the courtyard, knights were already engaging the enemy, but they were having their hands full and nobody was close enough to reach the gate and close it.

Jack entered the courtyard completely disoriented by the helmet he was wearing. A warrior, also wearing armor, ran towards him with his sword raised high. The man sliced at Jack, hitting him in his chest, but to the warrior's utter astonishment, nothing happened. Jack understood that he should do something instead of just standing there. He swung with his sword in an awkward motion, clearly not as a trained knight. The warrior's head dropped on the ground. It would have been funny for Jack to be able to use a sword with such ease, if it wasn't for the fact that the sight of the beheaded warrior was so disturbing to him. Jack sighed, adopting a 'what has to be done, must be done' kind of attitude and going in search for his next victim.

Soon, the enemy understood that something was not right. No matter what they threw at the three black knights, being arrows, spears, or attacking with their swords, the knights were unbeatable and they were not prepared to fight an unbeatable opponent, much less three of them.

Jack, Liam and Daniel reunited in front of the gate, looking at each other for a short moment before going completely berserk at the enemy, slicing with their swords like children, yet with incredible effectiveness. The warriors tried to back away, nobody wanting to be in the first row against those meat grinders that were approaching them, but other warriors from behind were pushing them forward and making their retreat impossible.

Merlin stood on the wall above the main gate, concentrating with his hands in the air. As if from nowhere, dark clouds started forming above Camelot increasing in density while strong winds started raging from all directions. The people there were frightened at what was happening, or even worse, what was going to happen next. The clouds reached their peak density, arcs of lightning thundering everywhere in the sky. The arcs suddenly connected, shooting down in front of the main gate. Strong explosions rocked the earth beneath the enemy warriors, several of them being burned or thrown into the air. The enemy advance had been stopped, the lightning giving the three black knights the help they needed to push the remaining warriors back outside so that the gate could finally be closed again. At that moment, the enemy decided to adopt a _'screw this'_ attitude, turning by 180 degrees and starting to run as if the devil itself was chasing them, which, to their knowledge, could very likely be the truth. The warriors were brave, but they knew when the situation had gone completely FUBAR.

The people in Camelot started cheering once they saw the enemy fleeing away, but at the same time they were also wary of the three strange knights in black armor that were standing in front of them. They didn't know who they were, how they got here and, most importantly, if they were going to kill them all. The biggest fear of all was that there was magic involved, as the only possible explanation for how easy it had been for them to kill so many. People sighed in relief when the three knights took off their helmets, even more when Merlin gave them a plausible explanation for them wearing those _magical_ armors. He explained how he had enchanted three armors and gave them to the three strangers in case things hadn't gone as planned and the people ended up being grateful for what he did. The King was also incredibly grateful for the three strangers helping them in their time of need. The king promised they would always be welcomed in Camelot.

Another banquet had been prepared in their honor with even more people attending. The festivities went on throughout the entire city of Camelot and continued throughout the entire night. There was also an execution of those who had helped open the gate and others who didn't escape the fight in time. Daniel and Jack weren't happy to watch those beheadings, contrary to the rest of the people there who cheered and celebrated the act. Those who opened the gate were peasants, unhappy with Utter's ruling and also brave enough to do something in order to change it. There were many more who didn't like the King, but also unwilling to risk their lives as those who had opened the gate. Jack and Daniel were troubled, not knowing if they changed history or made it and also not liking both options and only finding comfort in the fact they didn't have any choice in the matter and that one day Arthur would take his father's place and do something good with his kingdom.

The next morning, with a raging headache, the three newly branded Knights of Camelot had spent most of the day in Merlin's lab, helping as much as they could to complete the remaining components the Defiant would need. It was mostly Merlin and Liam's work, but Jack and Daniel didn't want to spend that time outside with too many people treating them as heroes. After some time, the attention had become tiresome and they needed some peace and quiet to recuperate from the festivities and prepare for their departure. It took the entire day to finish the repairs of the Defiant that was finally able to reactivate his reactor. As their time of departure came closer, Merlin decided it was time to give Liam something he wouldn't need anymore. The device he had built so that no ascended being could eavesdrop while he worked on the weapon that could destroy ascended beings. Liam was reluctant, not understanding why he was giving it to him with all his research in it. Merlin explained that, now that he knew when the Ori would come, and that Liam will be there to fight them, the device will help him to accomplish that. Merlin also decided he would remain here to see Arthur grow, but after that he would probably leave this place, still not knowing where he would go or do afterward. Liam had to promise he would keep the device safe, also realizing the danger it represented if it falls into the wrong hands. The device in itself was a marvel of technology. Combined with the knowledge inside, it was a ticking bomb.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Defiant _(5__th__ century)_**

The three strangers left Camelot for their puddle jumper waiting where they'd left it. Once reached, the puddle jumper rose into the air with haste as all of them wanted to go back home as soon as possible.

Once aboard the Defiant, Jack could barely wait to tell the tale of their heroics of how they'd saved the kingdom.

"… and then we charged the enemy at the gate, pushing them back so that we could finally close the gate. Merlin summoned a storm above Camelot and lightning struck the enemy in front of the gate so we could finally close it. I can tell you, the enemy didn't expect that. They ran like the devil was chasing them," Jack was explaining what happened to Sam and the rest of the crew on the bridge.

Sam was dumbstruck, thinking what Jack could have possibly had to drink down there for telling such a story, but Daniel's expression told her it was all true. "Hah? And I thought I had an exciting time fixing the ship."

Liam stepped on the bridge. He had spent some time in engineering installing the device Merlin had given him so they could recreate the anomaly that brought them here. He walked to the captain who was also listening intently to Jack's tale, "The device is ready. We can go now."

The captain didn't wait for more encouragement. He instructed the pilot to take them away from the planet in order to finally go home. The pilot moved the ship to the location where they exited the anomaly. The device activated forming the same anomaly in front of them as before and the ship lurched forward under the gravimetric distortion the anomaly was producing. The ship went through, this time, with much less turbulence as Merlin gave them the right instructions on how to modify the shields. The ship exited the anomaly on the other side.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Defiant (somewhere… still in the past)**

"Check when we are," the Captain ordered, but the pilot had something else to add instead.

"Shit! Earth is in front of us," the pilot said.

"How is that possible?" the captain asked.

The crewman manning the sensor was already working in order to find out what went wrong, "We are in the wrong space-time coordinates. Earth is not where it should be in our time."

As the crewman said those words, the others immediately understood they didn't return to their time and Earth wasn't where they supposed it would have been.

"That's not the worst part. We are too close to the planet. It's pulling as down."

The ship was already entering the higher layer of Earth's atmosphere. The pilot was unable to do anything to counteract the strong gravitational force the planet was exerting on the ship and their descent was too steep to change course. The planet's atmosphere burned against the ship's shields, making the ship turn into a fireball. The pilot was doing everything he could to slow down the fast approaching ground from hitting them, but it wasn't easy. The ship was moving too fast to simply change course. The pilot had to gradually turn the tip of the ship upward, at the same time, accelerating instead of slowing down as someone would believe it should be done. The ship almost touched the ground before the pilot managed to level the ship, now slowly gaining altitude instead of losing it. Finally the pilot pushed the engines to afterburner, speeding back upward into space.

"When are we?" the Captain asked after the ship reached space.

"We are somewhere in 1993. The anomaly didn't bring us back the entire way," the officer working on the sensors replied.

"The calculations must have been wrong. Merlin had warned me it could happen," Liam said.

Jack turned to Liam, "Do you think somebody noticed our reentry?"

Liam shrugged, "I have no idea. We will find out when we return to our time."

It was true. Nobody had caught their reentry, except for one person who was spending his vacation camping in the woods where they almost reached ground. The man was the artist who will eventually design the Defiant for the Star Trek series.

Jack asked the question everybody was already thinking, "So, what now?"

"Now we try again," Liam answered. "We are now much closer to our time and it will be much easier to get the time right this time."

Liam stepped to one of the consoles, inputting some data in it that would hopefully bring them back home in the right time. Once he finished, he gave the okay to the captain who without thinking ordered the ship to open the anomaly once more. The ship sped towards it, exiting on the other side the same way they did just moments before. Thankfully, this time, they ended in the right timeline, only a day after their unfortunate time travel had begun.

They were finally home.

* * *

**Please leave a review and let me know what you think.**


	10. Chapter 10: Ori Unbound

**Author's note: Here's the tenth chapter with everything already being set in the previous chapters for the inevitable war that will follow us until the end of the first book. For those who like a lot of action I hope you'll enjoy the next six chapters.**

**Apocalyps24: I also like Jack's character and i have plans for him in the future.**

**Senrab Nomis: I also thought the armors were cool. Although I don't know how the others on Terrania would feel about having Jack wearing the armor all the time. And he is the type of character to wear it even in the office, just because it's cool.**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

"… and then we charged the enemy at the gate, pushing them back so that we could finally close the damn thing you know. Merlin summoned a storm above Camelot and then lightning struck the enemy in front of the gate. I can tell you, the enemy didn't expect that. They ran like hell," Jack was retelling the story he'd already told countless times.

Daniel had lived it, and Sam heard it at least ten times before, but Jack once again wanted to tell the story so that the entire Council could hear it. And the Council listened intently the tale Jack was telling, captivated by it and utterly awestruck by what Jack, Daniel and Liam had done while in Camelot. There was something about tales of chivalry, castles and old stile epic battles that people always liked to hear, and knowing that the people in front of them witnessed the events first hand, made the story even more entertaining. The entranced audience wasn't even bothered by the brutality that Jack was depicting in the story. The sword fighting resulting in dismemberments or decapitation, or the hangings Jack and Daniel witnessed. They just wanted to hear more.

Unfortunately, the Council didn't meet to hear Jack telling how he had spent the weekend, but rather to discuss some important and rather urgent matters. "Jack, can we leave the story for after the meeting?" Daniel asked a little frustrated to have to listen again the same story.

Jack turned to Daniel a little annoyed at being interrupted so abruptly, "Daniel, I was just coming to the good part."

Daniel sighed, "And you'll have the chance to end it later. Let's discuss what we came here to discuss and then who wants to hear how it ends can remain and listen to you telling the story… again."

Jack was reluctant, but the magical moment had been broken and the Council was ready to go back to business, "Fine! We'll do it your way."

"Thank you," Daniel said before turning to Paul. "Paul, what do you have for us?"

"Oh, I'll go first than. Alright, let me see," Paul said, clearing his throat and opening the appropriate document on his tablet. "As you know, last week we have presented the proposal to Earth with the list of tech we are going to give them in the next five years and, although reluctantly, they have agreed it is a good plan. We have also given them the first batch and it made quite the steer on Earth. Several companies took the opportunity to start developing something based on what we gave them and investments are through the roof. It looks like Dmitri's idea is paying off and our predictions for the growth of the economy are great."

Dmitri smiled, but his smile wasn't genuine as someone would expect, "Yes that's great, but let's hear about the other shoe."

Paul sighed, letting the other know that indeed, there was another side to the story, "Well, as we expected, the release is having a different impact on the countries that didn't join the Terran Alliance. Even the Chinese are not investing in China anymore. They rather invest in companies that have access to the new tech we gave them than back in China."

Jack was torn between not understanding and _really_ don't understanding where the problem was, "So, where's the problem? Aren't our countries happy to have an influx of fresh money coming from China or other 'outside' countries, sort of speak?"

"They are, but the Chinese aren't. They are already trying to push some new legislation that is going to limit how much can be invested in the member countries of the Terran Alliance," Paul explained where the problem was.

"So, they are burying themselves even deeper," Jack said still not understanding where the real problem was.

"Jack, the problem is the entire region is destabilizing. Their people are starting to protest against their leadership and their leaders are making it worse by making new laws that will, in the long run, make things much worse." Daniel intervened, trying to explain a little better so that Jack could understand it. What Daniel didn't know was that Jack did understand everything. He just didn't care.

"Daniel, I'm not dumb, I just have a different opinion on what is a problem and what's not, and I think this is not a problem," Jack concluded a little pissed.

"How can you say that? You know how fragile the balance in the world is at the moment. This crisis in China can easily push them over the edge." Daniel retorted.

"I can because from the moment we started this alliance I knew that there were only two possible outcomes out of this mess. First, China finally gets back to their senses and joins the Terran Alliance as they should have done it a long time ago, or second option, war. There is no other way, because Earth can't remain split in half as it is right now, with half the planet traveling the stars with all the benefits that come with it, and the rest staying in the back seat, living with the crumbs they let them have," Jack explained.

That made everybody in the room think very hard, nobody knowing how to retort to Jack's explanation of the current predicament Earth was in, but also not liking what his conclusion was. It was true though, and they knew it. Earth couldn't function if split like that.

Klaus pensively turned to Jack, "Where do you place your money Jack, on the first or the second option?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Jack answered with a question.

"No I don't. I fear the same to be true. The Chinese and North Koreans will never join now, it's just too late for that," Klaus continued.

"What about the Middle East?" Paul asked.

"They could. I can't be certain, but I think they could go for option number one." Dmitri interjected.

"I think that too," Klaus agreed.

"So, the real problem is the Chinese and the North Koreans. And North Korea is only a problem if China is." Dmitri continued.

"Yes, and they are now nearing completion of their first interstellar ship," Klaus added with a somber tone.

"What, already?" Paul asked, reluctant to believe they could have completed their ship in such a short time. After all, they didn't have the resources the Terrans have.

"Indeed. They must have pushed really hard this last month, and that is not the worse part. There are rumors their ship is just large enough to be a cargo ship, a ship barely capable of holding a gate in his cargo hold," Klaus said, hinting to the reason the Chinese were pushing so hard to have a ship capable of traveling to other planets.

Jack sighed, "We knew already that was their probable intention all along. The point is how we stop them?"

"I don't think we can or if we even should. It could be catastrophic," Dmitri replied.

"Oh, I think we can and should. I told you, there are only two ways out of this, and them having a functioning gate doesn't help us toward any of these options." Jack explained.

"Maybe, but wouldn't any action we do steer us toward the second option rather than the first one. And we do want the first one to happen, don't we," Dmitri said while looking intently at Jack.

"Alright, I can concede that point, but can you tell me that leaving the Chinese have their gate isn't worse than stopping them from taking it?" Jack asked Dmitri.

"I don't know. The only thing I know is that it wouldn't be a good thing if we get caught."

"Then it's settled. We don't get caught," Klaus opined.

"That's my man!" Jack said, pointing at Klaus.

Lisa Giacomini didn't like where this was going, "Are we really discussing this?"

"Unfortunately we are, but I think we shouldn't do anything without the other countries' approval," Dmitri opined.

"Well, I think we will all die of old age before we get a commitment from politicians on this topic," Jack said, pausing before continuing, "Nevertheless, you're right. We should ask them what they think we should do. We have what it takes to stop them. The only thing we need is for them to agree that something needs to be done."

"Well then, it appears you'll have a call to make after this meeting is over," Klaus said while looking at Jack.

"Why me? Can we just ask one of the representatives?" Jack said, but even before he ended his sentence he knew that talking to Woolsey wasn't such a good idea. "Oh, forget I said anything. I'll call President Hayes when we're finished here."

"Good, let's then go on with our schedule," Dmitri said.

They went through the other topics on the today's list, among them, the increased activity of the priors and their soldiers even after they'd successfully managed to disable every gate in the galaxy from receiving a connection from another galaxy. Something big was going on and they had to find what it was. Klaus and Jack suggested they should capture a few of their soldiers as they were usually more inclined to talk than priors were. They also wanted to test the new device they had created and that should stop a Prior from using his powers. They already had the right mission for the task. The attack on the Sodan has given them the opportunity they needed to find and capture some Ori followers and probably even a prior.

The Jaffa were the next item they needed to discuss. There was always something to say about the unstable situation of the Jaffa, still unable to resolve their differences and nobody in the room knew how to help them, except maybe for Jack with the idea to shoot Gerak and end his reign once and for all. Of course, even Jack said it more in frustration than actually wanting to order an assassination, even in this case when Gerak was the person in question.

Without finding any other solution to the Jaffa predicament, the Council moved to the last item scheduled for today's meeting, which was the second anniversary of the siege of Dakara and the attack on Earth that had followed shortly after. A ceremony was scheduled for next week, both on Dakara and on Earth, and they needed to somehow find a way to incorporate those two events in their already tight schedule. What the others hadn't noticed was the slight nod Klaus gave to Jack, and how Jack smiled back. There was something going on between those two that the others didn't know.

The meeting finally ended, with Jack wanting to finish his story, but the others weren't in the mood. The meeting lasted much longer than they had anticipated, and everybody had other obligations they needed to attend to. Jack reluctantly left the Council's chambers, and not just because of the story, but also because he knew what his next task was going to be. Closing the door behind him, Jack sat in his chair behind his desk. He waited in silence for a long while before he decided it was time to make the call.

The President would be free in an hour. Jack didn't want to discuss the matter over the phone as you never knew if somebody was listening. They agreed to meet in the Presidential office and that gave Jack just enough time to sign a few documents he had on his desk before beaming to the American continent. It was easier for him to go there, than for the President to come here.

* * *

**Earth - Washington DC**

After the usual pleasantries the President and Jack were accustomed to exchange every time they saw each other, Jack switched the conversation toward the real reason for him being there.

"Mr. President, I'm here to discuss something that I would like to stay between us for now," Jack said.

The president nodded, also giving Jack the signal to wait before pushing a button on the side of his table that probably served to isolated the room from every possible listening device, at least those known to Earth, "What is it Jack?"

"Mr. President, I don't know if you are aware, but the Chinese are only a week from completing their first interstellar ship."

Hayes was stunned, "I wasn't, and I'm confused on how _you _know when their ship will be ready."

"We have our methods, Mr. President," Jack said with a content expression on his face.

"Alright, I won't ask. So, the Chinese are finally completing their little project. This is a little troubling, but I have the feeling there is more."

"Yes, there is. We believe one of the first things the Chinese are going to do is to go on some planet, take a Stargate and bring it back to Earth. I don't have to tell you the mess that could cause," Jack said.

Seeing the President nodding in complete understanding, he continued. "Well, we have a half idea to stop them from succeeding, but we also think we shouldn't be the only one to make such a decision."

The President really didn't like the situation he was in and Jack noticed, "Mr. President, I somehow have the clear impression you would have preferred for things to go back when I wasn't telling you anything we were doing."

"Well, when you come here with bombs like this one, of course I'd rather not be informed. Do you have any idea on how to accomplish that without causing World War III?"

"I do."

"You do? How?"

"Oh well, I can tell you from experience that hyperdrives are very tricky. They tend to break down on the worst possible moment." Jack explained.

Hayes sighed, "They are, aren't they?"

"Oh yes. On several occasions we would have had ships stranded if it wasn't for the Asgard or other ships coming to our rescue."

Hayes chuckled while shaking his head, "Yeah, I can imagine. And the Chinese are only beginning to fully understand such technology."

"Exactly. Our first attempt at hyperdrive propulsion also didn't go so well."

"So, what do you need from me?"

"Approval… and soon."

"I see. You know I can't give you anything in writing and that if things go wrong, we will deny any involvement in this?"

"I know, and I don't need anything in writing. I only want to know that the countries in the Terran Alliance are onboard with this."

The situation was tricky. Hayes knew what Jack wanted. No matter how it turns out, he wanted assurance that they wouldn't openly blame the Terrans for this. It was also a double edge blade because, if things went wrong, the countries could deny their involvement, but at the same time they couldn't sanction the Terrans for what they did since they were secretly onboard with the plan, and without sanctions the Chinese would realize very quickly the countries were also involved, no matter how much they deny it. "How sure are you this want come back to bite us in the ass?"

"Pretty sure. I mean, something should really go terribly wrong for this mission to not succeed?"

"And what if their ship manages to send back a signal?"

"We want them to. It would be too strange for the Chinese if they don't receive a distress call from their ship. The only tricky part is to make it look like the hyperdrive really failed. There must be no sign of sabotage."

"And you thing you can pull this off without them knowing what really happened?"

"As I've already said, hyperdrives fail all the time," Jack said.

The President was pensive. He was calculating the pros and cons of this, in his opinion, very risky move, "Alright Jack, you'll have my answer by the end of the week."

Jack nodded, knowing the President would need time to assemble the others and sell it to them. Jack had the clear impression the President already decided in favor of the mission, and if he was onboard, the chances the others would say no were very small. "Alright Mister President, I'll make the necessary preparations while I await your answer," Jack said smiling.

The President smiled back at Jack, also understanding that Jack was confident they would approve. They spent the next fifteen minutes discussing other matters, no one particularly important, before the President had another meeting he needed to attend. Jack beamed back to Terrania to continue with his usual work.

* * *

**Earth - Terrania**

Jack had been working for the past few hours when he received an unexpected visit and this time, it came through the gate.

"Liam, is everything alright?" Jack said once he reached Liam in the gateroom, curious about Liam's reason for being here and also why he was wearing different clothing. Until today, Jack only saw Liam in his usual Alterran robes, but now he was wearing some strange suit, like the one the guardians' recon teams were always wearing.

"It is."

"So why coming through the gate and what's with the… _strange _outfit?"

"My ship is in the Andromeda galaxy and I didn't want to spend the next few hours traveling here, and this is the usual outfit when I travel on planets that could hold some danger."

"What planet do you intend to visit that might be dangerous?"

"The Sodan planet of course."

Realization crossed Jack's mind, now knowing why Liam was here, "So you want to go on the mission we are preparing?"

"I do. I am very curious to see what the whole commotion is about. We know the Ori are planning something big and I don't like being in the dark when something big is about to happen."

"Alright, if you want to come along, we are leaving in about an hour or so," Jack said while checking his watch.

The two of them moved to Jack's office until the mission was scheduled to begin. They discussed a few things to make the time pass faster, among them, Liam mentioning that Jack should be very careful with the little mission they were planning to sabotage the Chinese ship, since it could have grave repercussions if things didn't go as planned. Jack could have sworn Liam sometimes knew about things before they even happened. Liam explained, as he'd already told him, sometimes he _did_ know in advance, but today this wasn't the case. Having a bug in Jack's office as well as in President Hayes' office was the reason he knew everything that was happening around here. Jack was pissed. He didn't like the idea of being constantly watched, but Liam explained he should be grateful, since the recordings he was making would be great if things went south and the President decided to deny their involvement. Jack had to agree, but he also hoped it wouldn't come to that. Jack also asked uncomfortably if there was any chance that his apartment was also bugged, dreading the possibility that Liam knew _everything _he did. Liam told Jack that he should not worry about it, which in turn made Jack worry even more. The time to go on the mission came, so thankfully they had to end their strange conversation that was making Jack very uncomfortable.

Jack spent the next ten minutes trying to put on the new combat suit the Terrans had developed. Once finished, the two of them joined SG-1, SG-12 and SG-13 that were already waiting for them in the gate room. SG-1 once more had four members, with Teal'c wanting to come along on the mission and Mitchell, Peters and Ford as the team's regular members. The gate turned the usual seven times, locking chevron after chevron until the gate erupted in front of them. The teams checked their gear one more time before stepping through the gate, Liam and Jack following behind.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sodan Planet**

It had taken them almost half an hour to reach the Sodan village and another half an hour to set up the trap. The Sodan were still reluctant to help, but in their hearts they knew the Ori were evil and that they shouldn't follow their religion. After setting up the trap, buried near the location where they planned to ambush the prior, they all took cover throughout the village, some inside buildings while others behind some trees far enough not to be spotted by the prior or the soldiers.

Time passed by, Jack and Liam waiting patiently the prior's arrival for the next hour and a half before he finally decided to show up. The prior was accompanied by four soldiers carrying some strange looking spears that were in fact energy weapons. The prior approached the leader of the Sodan exactly where they wanted him to. The trap was ready and set, everybody preparing themselves for the inevitable confrontation that was about to follow. Mitchell finally gave the order to act and the soldiers sprung from their hidings immediately taking out the four soldiers with their Zat-guns even before they could understand what was going on, but the prior was faster. The Zat-guns discharged, but instead of hitting the prior they hit a barrier the prior had raised all around him. His staff weapon was glowing, another indication the device didn't stop the prior's powers from working as intended and the prior was looking really angry. The leader of the Sodan flew toward the prior, pulled by an invisible force and unable to do anything to stop it.

"You have strayed from the righteous path and you will suffer the consequences," the prior threatened the Sodan warrior he was holding in front of him with his telekinetic powers.

In the meantime, Mitchell was frantically trying to find the right frequency that would hopefully stop the prior's powers. It took him two more attempts before he found it. The Sodan warrior suddenly dropped to the ground not being held anymore by the prior. The prior was confused and his confusion soon turned into fear. He didn't have his awesome powers to protect him anymore and the people that were surrounding him knew that. Mitchell stepped in front of him with a smug expression on his face, something the prior noticed and really didn't like.

"What, no Ori helping you anymore? What's that all about?" Mitchell said, trying to ridicule the poor bastard.

"You will burn in the eternal flames of damnation and…" the prior started with the rehearsed mantra, but Mitchell stopped him.

"Ye-ye-ye, we know all about that and frankly we are fed up with your speeches," Mitchell said in a mocking tone. The prior stood silent, not really knowing what else to say, so Mitchell decided to continue. He stepped to the left, unearthing the small but apparently very useful device before showing it to the prior, "You know, for being some advanced beings, you are real dumb fucks, you know that?"

The prior was still unwilling to say anything and Mitchell again decided to continue his little speech, trying to rattle the man as much as possible. "You see this device? This device is the reason why you can't do any of your usual tricks. How about that, ha? So much power and yet, a little device like this is capable of stopping your awesome powers."

"This will not help you. You cannot fight the Ori. You cannot fight the will of the Gods."

"You do know you sound like a broken record. No matter how many priors we encountered… and killed, we always hear the same litany from you guys. Don't you have some kind of PR who can give you some tips on how to make speeches? Because, I can tell you right now, nobody is buying what you're selling anymore."

The prior knew he was being ridiculed and he also knew how this man in front of him was trying to rattle him so that he would say something important, and he wasn't about to do that. At the same time as Mitchell was badgering the poor prior, another team moved the four soldiers inside a nearby house so that, once awakened, they could interrogate them properly and see what they knew.

Mitchell had continued with the interrogation of the prior for the next hour, in that time, receiving many 'Hallowed are the Ori' and even more insults and threats, but nothing that could be categorized as useful. As he understood there was no chance in hell he would gain anything from the man, he decided it was time for somebody else to step in and try to extort something more from him.

Liam exited the small house and approached the prior, "Hello prior of the Ori."

The prior turned, looking intently at the approaching person, "Who are you?"

"Don't you know," Liam replied.

"Should I?" the prior replied after spending a few more moments looking at him.

"You should. I am the devil your masters fear the most."

The prior's eyes widened, knowing there could be only one answer. "You are Alterra."

"I am. I'm an Alterran who lived as a mortal and also as an ascended being for millions of years."

"If you were and ascended being, why are you now mortal again?"

"There are many reasons for my return to this realm, only one of them having anything to do with the Ori coming here."

"You are here to try to stop them from coming here?"

"I am here to stop a slaughter, a slaughter of innocents misguided by beings who only want power for themselves."

"The Ori are showing us the right path, the path all humans must follow. They are offering everlasting life for those who follow Origin," the prior retorted, reverting to the usual mantra.

"Unfortunately, that is a lie. A lie that is making people lose their lives in vain."

"It is not in vain. We have been offered ascensions as a reward for our servitude and devotion to the Ori."

"Prior, hear me! Those are only words without meaning or any truth in them. The Ori are not helping you ascend, why would they? They would have to share their power if they do so, and the Ori don't want to share anything. Did you know the Ori need their followers more than you need them? They need you to pray to them so they can steal your energy, which they use in order to become stronger. Without you, the Ori are weak, much weaker than we the Alterrans are."

"Blasphemy! The Ori grant us ascension after we die."

"Really? So, they told you that if you die right know you will ascend and join them in the higher plane?"

"Of course, as do all devoted followers of Origin."

"Hah, that's strange? I don't see how's that possible? I mean, you are in the Milky Way galaxy right now, and there are no Ori here. The ascended beings in this galaxy, my brothers and sisters, are not letting the Ori come here, and you can be certain my people will not help any of you ascend."

The prior fell silent. He didn't know how to reply to Liam's words, but he had to try, "The Ori cannot be stopped from coming here."

"Of course they can," Liam chuckled. "That is the reason why _you _are here. They need more followers in this galaxy to become stronger. Only after you have converted a good portion of this galaxy to their religion, they will be able to come here. Tell me another thing prior. Did you ever see another prior die?"

The prior didn't know where Liam was going with this, "I did."

"And a prior is the most devoted follower of Origin, is it not?"

"It is."

"Did you see his body ascend, converting into pure energy?" Liam asked, immediately noticing the prior reluctance to answer. "Because, I witnessed many people ascend. Even this man here witnessed one of his closest friends ascend, and every time it happened the body was converted into pure energy." Liam said, pointing at Jack who had joined them a few moments before and as the person who witnessed the fact.

The prior was cornered. He did witness another prior being killed and he didn't see him turn into… anything. His body had slumped on the ground with a hole in his chest from a bullet fired from one of the Terran accursed snipers that had taken so many of his brothers and there wasn't anything suggesting he had ascended. Unfortunately, there was something else no one there was aware of. He had regained his powers and he wasn't prepared to listen to these heretics anymore. He stretched his hand forward, the staff that was lying nearby on the ground, flying towards him. Once he caught his staff, the orb on top of it started glowing again and the prior turned toward Liam.

Liam felt the sudden pull, but he was unable to do anything to stop it. He flew towards the prior who gripped Liam by his neck with the other hand, squeezing so tight that Liam felt suffocating.

"You must die!" the prior shouted.

The soldiers who were standing there fired at the prior, but he'd already raised a barrier and their bullets were bouncing harmlessly against it. Liam felt consciousness slipping away, with the thought of his life ending in such a meaningless way bothering the hell out of him, but the prior was too strong to even move, much less free himself. Or at least that was the case until now.

Liam suddenly felt a surge of energy flowing through his body. Instead of feeling weaker, he sensed new strength rushing through him, strength he never felt before. He opened his eyes that have inexplicably changed, now glowing of a bright blue color, but there was also something else in them. There was a slight hint of rage in them as well. He saw how the prior didn't understand what was happening, he saw how frightened he was, and he was glad for it. He placed one hand on the glowing blue orb on top of the prior's staff, the orb's brightness diminishing considerably as he touched it. He felt the prior losing strength, his grip much weaker than before and barely able to hold his weight. The orb suddenly broke in half with a loud cracking sound and Liam dropped back on his feet. He was finally free from the prior's grip. Without hesitation, he rushed forward toward the prior, in a fluid and incredibly fast motion, extending his right arm and hitting the prior with the palm of his hand straight in the middle of his chest. The prior flew backward, crushing into the house more than ten meters behind him and with enough force to break several bones in his body. Liam wanted to go and end the prior's miserable existence, but he felt the newly acquired strength leaving him the same way it came. He dropped to his knees, unable to do anything more than to try to catch his breath.

Jack hurled toward Liam, grabbing his hand and trying to help him get back on his feet, "What did just happen?"

It took him a few more moments to regain enough strength to get back on his feet. He didn't answer to Jack. Instead, he rushed toward the prior. After he reached him, he noticed the prior didn't look too good. There was blood coming out of his mouth and the strange position he was in was clear indication there was something terribly wrong with his back.

"You will give me what I want, even unwillingly," Liam said without any compassion for the dying man.

The prior was barely able to stay conscious and he didn't understand what Liam had meant by that, but he was clearly afraid. Liam leaned forward and placed his hand on the prior's head, deeply concentrating. Images started to flow into his mind, images that didn't belong to him. It lasted mere seconds before Liam gained what he wanted. He moved his hand away, also releasing the mental hold on the prior, when he saw the terrified expression on his face, an expression the prior would take to his grave.

Jack, once again, reached Liam and the, by now, dead prior. He didn't have a clue what just happened, but he made a mental note never to piss Liam off, "Let me try one more time. What just happened?"

Liam was pensive, there were a lot of things he would have to think about in the near future, but for now there was something more important. He turned around clearly looking for somebody, "Teal'c!" Liam shouted, motioning for him to come closer. Teal's did as he was told since he immediately registered the urgency in Liam's voice. "I know what the prior was hiding and I know what they are planning."

"So, what is it?" Jack said impatiently.

"They have a working supergate, and I know where it is. We must assemble a fleet as soon as possible. I fear it is already too late, but nevertheless, we must try to stop their fleet from coming through the supergate." Liam didn't need to say anything else, everybody already knowing what there next task would be. They packed their bags as fast as they could and took off.

The trek to the gate had taken another twenty minutes, time they didn't have, but there was no other way to get off the planet. Teal'c left the planet for Dakara while everybody else went to Earth. Liam would contact the Guardians outpost from there.

What the people who just left the planet didn't know was that they hadn't been alone on the Sodan planet. From the moment the battle had begun, several ascended beings had watched the entire thing unfold with expecting eyes. What they'd witnessed, it had rattled them and they as well didn't know what exactly happened. They witnessed something that needed to be reported to the council as soon as possible, something that shouldn't have happened and yet, somehow, it did.

* * *

**Dakara**

Teal'c exited through the Stargate and notified the first guard there to run inside the building and inform the council there was going to be an unscheduled meeting. He then went straight to the council chamber, only having to wait a few more minutes for the majority to assemble inside.

Bra'tac watched Teal'c's preoccupied expression, knowing something big was going on, "Teal'c, what is the reason for this meeting? There was no meeting scheduled for today."

"There is a matter of the utmost urgency we must address," Teal'c said, leaving the council enough time to actually start paying attention. "On the last mission I had with the Tau'ri, we have been able to capture a prior. We have learned there is another supergate in this galaxy and we know where it is. We need to assemble a fleet and send it there to stop the Ori fleet from entering this galaxy. The Terrans and Liam are doing the same as we speak."

Bra'tac was concerned, "How much time do we have?"

"There is no time. There is a chance we are already too late, but we must try." Teal'c explained his fear.

"Where is the supergate located?" Bra'tac asked. After Teal'c showed where the supergate was located on a holographic map, he continued. "There are only half a dozen of our warships close enough to reach the location in any useful time. I will inform them immediately they need to change their course."

"You will not do any such thing!" Gerak shouted while entering the council chamber.

The council turned towards Gerak in puzzlement. Bra'tac was the first to say something, "We must send every available ship to stop the Ori from coming here."

"You are fools! There is no reason to believe the Ori are really coming. This is a simple trick from the Tau'ri to lure us there under false pretenses." Gerak said.

Teal'c was losing patience. "There is no trick involved and the one who has found about the supergate is not even a Tau'ri."

"It does not matter who he is. He is working with the Tau'ri and we cannot trust him." Gerak replied, once more spitting venom without reason or proof of what he was saying.

Teal'c was enraged. He had enough of this moron and his idiotic attitude. "Gerak! In the last two years you have fought every attempt we have made to build a modern and powerful nation. Because of you, our nation is closer to collapse than to prosperity and in all that time the only thing the Tau'ri did was to help us in any way they can. On many occasions you have accused them of trying to destroy us and even accused their leader of working with the Goa'uld. For that alone, we should be grateful the Tau'ri did not come here to blast us all to the afterlife. Now, once again, you are accusing, not only the Tau'ri, but even an Ancient of conspiring against us, all without a shred of proof. Are you now also saying that you are a coward who is not prepared to fight the threat the Ori pose to the entire galaxy?"

"How dare you!" Gerak shouted at Teal'c.

"I dare because it is time for someone to do so! You have single-handedly undermined this nation with your obtuse beliefs! _You_ are the one responsible for where we are now and I will not stand silent anymore and let you do even more damage than you have already done!" Teal'c shouted, clearly being fed up with Gerak.

"You cannot talk to me like this! I am the Chairman of this Council."

"To use an old Tau'ri saying, the only thing you are is an old fart who should have retired a long time ago so that you cannot do any more harm and I ask the council here to vote against you as our leader."

Gerak's face paled at Teal'c words, but he knew he needed two thirds of the council votes to toss him out of office and he was certain he didn't have so many supporters. The vote began and to Gerak utter surprise, the majority voted against him. Apparently, many were fed up with him as well, much more than he thought it would be. With eight votes against him and only four in favor, Teal'c had just enough votes to get rid of him. Gerak stormed out of the room with the three other members who voted in his favor following closely behind. The remaining council members decided to temporarily place Bra'tac as their new leader.

Bra'tac accepted his new duties and immediately ordered the closest ships to change course toward the supergate, but he was also very concerned. After the meeting was over, Bra'tac approached Teal'c. "Teal'c, we have won this battle, but I fear this victory could cause us to lose the war in the end."

"I know my friend, I know. But I also know we could not have let Gerak decide against sending a fleet to help the Tau'ri. The repercussions of such a cowardly act would have cost us much more in the eyes of the Tau'ri and Liam and we cannot constantly blame Gerak if we are not willing to do anything to change it."

Bra'tac smiled at Teal'c, placing one hand on his shoulder in reassurance, "It appears I have taught you well my friend. You are right. If we acted as Gerak suggested, it would have shown the Tau'ri that even as warriors we are useless and that can never happen. But we now must worry what will Gerak's response be, and he will respond. Of that, you can be certain."

"I know," Teal'c answered with a somber tone.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aboard the Enterprise **

On the bridge of the Terran flagship, Jack and Liam watched the flow of hyperspace on the frontal view. The atmosphere was tense on the bridge, the only comfort Jack could think of, the ship still being named the Enterprise. He managed to convince the Council to keep the name because it was bad luck to change it and the captain, Amy Donovan, supported his claim. She didn't particularly like the name of the ship, but sailors throughout history believed that changing a ship's name would bring bad luck and she also didn't think of the name as being the same as the one in the Star Trek series. There were many naval vessels named the Enterprise throughout history, proud ships with great historical significance and that was enough for her. She was after all a navy officer and to tell the truth, she liked this name better than to name the ship after some Greek god like the Atlas, her previous ship.

The ship exited hyperspace, followed by the Odyssey and the Atlas. There would be more ships that were on their way here, but the aurora class ships were much slower and they were still unable to upgrade their hyperdrives. The problem was the upgrades were too difficult to do to the ships, especially those three in the Milky Way galaxy since they were too big to get inside the shipyards on Earth. The Terrans were building a few new shipyards that were going to be much bigger, capable of building the new battleships like the Enterprise and also able to upgrade the even bigger auroras.

All other Daedalus class warships were in the Pegasus galaxy or somewhere in between and it was going to take them a few more days to come back to the Milky Way galaxy. Liam also promised to send whatever he had in this galaxy, but the four destroyers and one lonely cruiser were the only one here since he'd moved as many ships as he could to the Andromeda galaxy in preparation for the battle that Liam believed it would stop the Senari from coming through the spatial anomaly. As a result, the Enterprise was the strongest ship in the fleet being gathered here, especially since the ship retained its ZPM.

"I want to know everything we can find about that thing there," Amy said, referring to the supergate that was standing in front of them.

The officer manning the powerful Asgard sensors put them to work, immediately receiving a ton of data as reword. "I'm detecting a large amount of energy being drained from the black hole nearby into the supergate. There is also some kind of tight shielding around the separate components the supergate is made of."

"I think we should try to destroy the gate before anything comes through," Amy said while looking at Jack.

"No, it won't do us any good," Liam said before Jack could say anything. "From experience we know those shields would suck everything we throw at them and even if it can't absorb the energy, the supergate is connected to the black hole that is giving him all the power it needs to protect it from anything we can throw at it."

"So, you're saying we have no way of destroying that thing?" Jack asked not liking their predicament.

"No we don't, at least not for now. After you've sent me the data you recorded from the incident with their first supergate, I've spent a lot of time analyzing it and as of now I don't have anything that can destroy that thing. You were lucky the gate was destroyed before it was fully operational."

"I really don't like this. Even if we stop whatever is coming here, we'll have to keep a constant presence to stop any future attempts they make," Jack replied, not liking the situation.

"Let's work on one problem at a time. We are here now to stop whatever is going to come through that thing. Let's worry about that now and leave the rest for another day."

The same officer who had spoken earlier noticed something else on the sensors, "Ma'am, six more ships have arrived. The Jaffa are here. They've sent us a message from someone named Rak'nor telling us they don't have any more ships in the vicinity."

"It' looks like we are all here than." Jack said, counting the five Guardians ships, the six Ha'taks and the two Daedalus in front of their own ship. He turned to Liam, "Do you think it will be enough?"

"I really don't know. Let's hope they won't show up for at least another half hour."

"Why half hour? What will happen then?"

"My ship and probably three O'Neill battlecruisers will arrive."

"I second that. It would really be a good addition," Jack said, knowing how powerful the Asgard ships were and only imagining what Liam's ship can do.

To their complete disappointment the supergate started cracking with electrical discharges, one component after the other. The gate was _dialing_ and it was only a matter of moments before the gate erupted connecting the Ori galaxy.

"Here we go people. We have activity," Amy notified the crew it was time for action.

As predicted, the supergate's event horizon erupted in front of them, creating a stable watery surface the moment it settled. It took only seconds for the first massive Ori ship to come through the gate. It was as big as an O'Neil battlecruiser or maybe even bigger and to their utter astonishment it looked like… a toilet bowl. It didn't matter how it looked. They knew what they were up against and the ship wasn't alone. Two more ships followed closely behind, taking position on both sides of the first ship. The three ships charged forward toward the fleet that was waiting for them, as if they didn't even care about the apparent numerical superiority they were about to face. The Terrans, Guardians and the Jaffa didn't wait a second longer, also pushing forward. The two fleets clashed together, entering weapons range and firing from the many various weapons at their disposal. The first surprise came when one of the Ori ships fired from his primary weapon, destroying the Ha'tak it targeted with one single shot. The second Ori ship fired at the Atlas, the ship shaking violently under the massive energy discharge that hit his shields. Since the Enterprise was able to receive telemetry from the entire fleet, Jack was able to see how the ship's shields had dropped to forty percent after only one hit. The third ship fired at one of the destroyers belonging to the Guardians with a similar result as when the Atlas was hit. It was dubious if the ship could take another hit without being destroyed. Another disappointing fact was that not one of the Ori ships was getting any damage, no matter how much they fired at them. Even the massive cannons of the Enterprise were not enough to pierce their strong shielding.

Liam understood that if things continued as they were now, they would lose this battle. "We must target one enemy ship at a time. That is the only chance we have to overload their shields."

Amy didn't even wait for Jack to give the order. She gave the order to the fleet to attack one of the three enemy ships, picking up the one closest to the Enterprise. The Enterprise was the strongest ship here and she thought it would be a good thing if the Enterprise was the one to take most of the heat. Her shields, powered with a ZPM, were probably the only thing that can stand against the Ori incredibly powerful weapon. As she predicted the Enterprise was the next target on the Ori list. Two ships fired at them almost at the same time. Two strong hits shook the Terran flagship violently, but the shield held firm. The third Ori ship targeted another Ha'tak, the ship exploding into a fireball as if he didn't even have shields to protect it.

All ships finally aligned in order to fire at the same ship at the same time. As they fired, dozens of energy beams and even more plasma bolts hit their designated target almost completely hiding the massive ship with the amount of explosions that resulted from the attack, but the ship's shields held once again.

"I'm detecting fluctuations in the enemy ship's shields!" the sensor's officer shouted.

"Fire again with everything we got!" Amy yelled back at the weapon's officer.

The Enterprise charged his weapons once again and fired. Four massive plasma bolts from its primary weapon's array, followed by many smaller plasma bolts from the turrets all over the ship, fired at the enemy ship, all toward a single point. They all struck simultaneously and this time they went through hitting the Ori central reactor. A massive explosion erupted, destroying the ship in million pieces. The Ori didn't wait, as the two remaining ships fired back, one of them at the Enterprise, while another fired at the Atlas. The Atlas' shields finally gave out under the tremendous strain they had been put through with such a massive amount of power. The shields collapsed and the ship was hit in full by the energy beam, breaking the ship apart. Secondary explosions destroyed what little remained completely. The fleet once again picked another Ori ship as their new target, firing at it with everything they had including drones from the Enterprise, but once more they were unable to pierce through the ship's shields. They were in the process of turning for another attack when one of the destroyers exploded after being hit again by one of the two remaining Ori's ships. Another Ha'tak followed shortly after as apparently the Ori decided to stop firing at the Enterprise focusing more on other vessels. Apparently, they'd understood that attacking their strongest ship wasn't the best way to go.

The fleet turned once more toward the same ship they'd already fired on, hoping to finish it, but they didn't know if their reduced firepower would be enough to destroy the ship. To their astonishment, the two Ori ships turned away and entered hyperspace, leaving the battlefield.

Jack was awestruck, "We won?"

Liam finally took a breath after having held it for the entire duration of the battle, "Apparently we did, although I'm not really sure why. I'm not sure we had the power necessary to destroy the second ship and the ship had more than enough time to recuperate from our first attack."

"I had the same thought. We've lost five ships, and many more have sustained at least some damage from their secondary weapons. Why did the Ori leave us if they had the clear advantage here?" Jack was puzzled.

It was true. The fleet was in bad shape. With two Ha'taks barely capable of firing, two destroyers with only fifty percent of their cannons still operational, and with the Odyssey having his shields at less than forty percent, there was no need for the Ori to retreat. Maybe they could have destroyed one more Ori ship, if lucky, but the battle was clearly in favor of the Ori. They all agreed it wasn't the time to think why and Liam suggested they should rather try to repair as much damage as they could in case the Ori decided to come back or, even though only as a remote possibility, send more ships through the gate. Liam thought if they had more ships ready, they would have sent them all together. There was another decision they would have to make right now - would they leave a considerable portion of their fleet here to watch the supergate, or not? It took them some time, in which time the fleet received reinforcements in the form of Liam's ship and three O'Neill battlecruisers as well as the three auroras before they realized it wouldn't be a very good thing to keep so many ships here now that there were two Ori warships in their back yard planning who knows what.

Once the most urgent repairs were made, the fleet departed in separate directions, towards their respective shipyards where they would perform more thorough repairs. The only ship that remained was a cloaked Tel'tak that would monitor the supergate.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

The next day the Terrans, Liam and the Jaffa had decided to meet in order to discuss the recent events and what they intended to do next. They already went through the data they collected during the battle, trying to understand what exactly happened and also making a threat assessment the two Ori ships might pose.

"Their ships are too strong," Bra'tak said while reading the report.

"Actually, their ships are much weaker then what I've thought they would be," Liam replied a little stunned by the Ori ships.

"What? You think that was weak?" Jack said.

"No, I didn't say they were weak. I just said I thought they should have been much stronger than they are. You must understand that we are dealing with ascended beings here, with knowledge we can barely understand."

"So why aren't they?" Jack said, thinking of what could possibly be the reason the Ori didn't send even more powerful warships.

"I think I know why, but it is only a conjecture. The Ori are powerful, with knowledge beyond anything anyone on the lower plane can possess, but on the other hand, their followers are mere peasants who have no idea how to build ships and they certainly don't have advanced shipyards. They have the laboring force they need, but to build warships you need the right infrastructure that I think they are lacking. I think that is the reason why their ships are made as they are. They have a strong shield, one powerful primary weapon and a very strong power source, all of that probably built by the priors who know how to do it. The rest of the ship is slowly built by peasants and this is also the reason they have only three of them. If they had an entire galaxy full of shipyards, we would have an endless stream of warships coming here already."

"So, how does this helps us?" Jack asked.

"It gives us hope. We now know they have limits to what they can bring here and we can plan accordingly. We still must understand why they ended the battle the way they did, because it's bugging the hell out of me not knowing why we are still alive right now," Liam concluded.

"I think I know why," Klaus said, the whole time standing there in silence and thinking of something. "I went through the sensor data of the battle and what I've noticed was that the second ship you attacked acted differently from the other two."

"How?" Liam asked really curious.

"The ship was also attacking, but after you destroyed the first ship it became very cautious in his movements. He started attacking Ha'tak ships from the outside of the battlefield while the other ship became even more aggressive and kept his position near the center as if he wanted to be the next target. It must have been pure luck the Enterprise was turned toward the second ship when Miss. Donovan gave the order to focus the attack on that ship. When you turned your ships for the second run on that ship, they'd decided to leave as fast as they could."

Liam understood where Klaus was going with this and he was really impressed by the man's deductive abilities. "You think there was _something_ onboard that ship they wanted to protect at all cost?"

"I do. There is no real reason for two ships to behave so differently in a battle if there's no discernable difference between them, so the only other way for them to be different is if one of them was carrying something or someone that made the ship more valuable."

"Interesting deduction Mr. Klaus, I think you are right about that. Maybe they were transporting someone important, like a leader or something."

"I think that too. It would explain why they left in such a hurry. For them, the survival of that single ship had to be more important than the destruction of our ships there."

"Yes. Now the only problem is in finding out who the ship was carrying and why he is so important to them."

Jack was listening, but at the same time he was thinking how this wasn't that important at the moment, "So, what we do next?" Jack asked while looking at Liam.

Liam noticed he suddenly became the focus of their attention, "Well, my first move will be to finally end the Senari infestation in the Andromeda galaxy. Once it is done, I will be able to bring here a lot of firepower. Jack, I suggest you do the same. You have two auroras retrofitted with the Asgard hyperdrives and they should be brought here as soon as possible. We know the Ori ships are too strong for the Daedalus or my cruisers and destroyers I have here. They can only work as support for stronger ships as the Enterprise and the retrofitted auroras. We must also take into account that the Ori ships are probably very fast and it will be difficult to chase them around the galaxy, so the only way to catch them is by knowing in advance where they are going to be."

"Alright, we can do that. What do you think the Ori will do next now that they have ships here?"

"First of all, we have to assume they now have the ability to build or that they already have a Stargate that can connect to their galaxy, so our work in changing the gates in order to stop them from coming here just went down the toilet's drain. We can expect them to bring more soldiers, scale up their attacks, now even on planets with a denser population. They will also find some place where they will use the people they already have converted to build more of whatever they need or simply by turning them into their foot soldiers, so I think we should prepare our ground forces. I think we will need them very soon."

"You think we will have to fight them on the ground?" Jack asked not liking the idea.

"I do, and soon."

"But what about their ships? If we land on a planet and they have those ships above our heads we are toast!"

"Dakara," Liam answered simply.

"What?" Jack asked not understanding.

"We do the same thing you did on Dakara. In these two years I've built many cannons, similar to the ones you have built and they as well can be easily deployed on any planet. I think even the Ori will think twice before attacking a planet with their flying toilets if we have those cannons on the ground, and I know you also have many cannons in reserve as well. The only problem is, we can't protect the entire surface of a planet, it would need too many cannons that we don't have and that means the Ori can still land troops outside the range of the cannons and attack on foot. And that is where our ground forces come into play. For now I would also like to avoid the two Ori ships unless we have a much stronger force to face them. There is a chance the Ori will increase their shields even further now that they know we are strong enough to hurt them."

"Can they really do something like that?"

"I think they can and will. They have only two ships here at the moment and I think they will do whatever they can to keep them alive, especially if some kind of leader is on one of them. The only positive side is that they will probably try to avoid confrontation as well since they now know we can hurt them if we have enough ships, at least until they can bring more."

"That's possible, and that is also the reason we need to discuss what we are going to do with that damn supergate," Jack said.

"I don't know. For now, I have nothing that can destroy that thing, but I'm working on it. If you have any idea how to destroy that thing feel free to share."

"Nope, nothing comes to mind, but I'll tell Sam to think of a way to do just that."

"Good, I think we are done here and I have to return to the Andromeda galaxy for the final preparations in the incoming battle there. The sooner I solve that little obstacle, the sooner I'll be able to focus more on the problems here."

"Good luck with your mission there," Jack replied to Liam.

Liam nodded and beamed away to his ship waiting in orbit. It was time to go home and prepare for the incoming battle. He had spent a lot of time preparing for this in order to finally block the passageway from where the Senari are entering into the Andromeda galaxy and with the help of the Asgard he was certain they would succeed.

The others present at the meeting also had gone their separate ways, for Jack and Klaus, only to switch room to attend yet another meeting. The day had been taxing and Jack was only waiting the moment he would go to his apartment to sleep. He felt so tired that he wasn't even hungry, which in his case was a pretty alarming fact. They informed the rest of the council of the events that had transpired, also taking a minute to mourn the recent losses. The destruction of the Atlas took almost two hundred lives with him, and that was the greatest loss the Terrans ever sustained. Even the Aurora that had been destroyed in the Pegasus galaxy by the Wraith didn't have so many people on it. The destruction of the Ori ship was only a small consolation so that the loss of so many wasn't completely in vain. Jack, Sam, Klaus and even Daniel knew very well that losses were inevitable in war, but the rest of the council were for the second time in their life faced with the true nature of war. No matter who was going to win in the end, war would always and inevitably bring grief. And yet, inexplicably, wars happen so often, too often for the people in the room. Together with morning the losses on Dakara and Earth almost two years ago, they now had to plan the funeral for two hundreds more souls. Jack also had the ungrateful task of notifying the families of the deceased, another reason why Jack wanted this day to end and to go to sleep, probably with the help of a few pills to make it easier.

For the first time Jack's wishes were answered. The council had finished in record time after only a few additional details on what they were planning to do next. Sam took on herself to work on finding a way to destroy or at least stop the supergate from allowing more ships to come here and inevitably from bringing a lot more sorrow to this galaxy, while the council decided to relocate additional resources to the military in order to build whatever they would need to fight the Ori.

After the meeting ended, Jack wanted to go to his office and at least notify the President of the United States of what happened, knowing most of the crew members who died were American citizens with families there, but Sam knew he was tired and she literally forbid him from doing anything else than go to his apartment and sleep. Tomorrow was another day and calling the President could wait.

* * *

**Earth – Memorial of the Attack on Earth**

The rest of the week had mostly been uneventful until the time to remember the day when Earth was attacked finally came and the council had to attend the ceremonies, first on Dakara and then on Earth. Except for the usual protocol where they'd remembered the various cities around the world that had been bombarded from orbit with massive casualties, they'd also showed the progress those cities had made in the past two years. But the real surprise was what Jack had worked with Klaus specifically for this day.

On the large screen behind the podium, on which the council and many dignitaries were standing, the execution of Baal that happened earlier today on Dakara played throughout the entire process. The display showed the Goa'uld symbiote being extracted by one of the Tok'ra present there, only to be followed by his destruction. Of course, they skipped the entire process in which the To'kra _chanted_ all the atrocities Baal had been found guilty of, the ones Jack had to endure for hours before finally witnessing the death of his archenemy. Jack, with the help of Klaus who had managed to trace the location where Baal had been hiding for all this time, finally succeeded in keeping a promise he'd made a very long time ago and that once before slipped through his fingers when he had to promise Baal he could leave Dakara if he helped them stop Anubis' diabolical plan to wipe out all life in the galaxy. Jack would now finally sleep a little easier, knowing that the parasite responsible for so much death and grief was finally dead and buried.

The public cheered on the sight of the most hated person on the entire planet finally being dead. At that moment, Jack's popularity changed from popular to popular-beyond-words, something Jack didn't particularly care for, but nevertheless something that could help him in stopping the dangerous rise of animosities between the various countries on the planet. The public was now definitely on his side, his influence through the roof and this could give him the chance to steer the public toward his goal of uniting the planet, all inside one big Terran Alliance. The President of the United States had given him the green light for the little mission in which he was going to sabotage the Chinese from gaining a working Stargate and if thing went wrong, as they usually do, his popularity could be the only thing that can stop World War III from happening.

The ceremony ended, only for the council to have to attend another event, a dinner which lasted for the rest of the evening. To Jack's astonishment the main topic during the dinner was the destruction of the Atlas. They were also asking many questions about the Ori and the threat they pose to Earth. Jack would diplomatically explain that there was no reason to worry since Earth was too well defended, explaining that only a fool would attack them here. He intentionally didn't mention that except for fools, fanatics were also on the list of who could get the brilliant idea to attack Earth. He knew the Ori followers could easily fall into that category and he didn't want to ruin a perfectly nice dinner. The day had finally ended, with the council returning home to Terrania where more duties and obligations were waiting for them. Another day Jack wanted for to end, but apparently he would have to work through it for a little longer and only then find some time to rest.

* * *

**Please leave a review. It only takes a moment.**


	11. Chapter 11: The Senari

**Author's note: **

Here comes the next chapter. If you find some character you thought dead, here still being alive, keep in mind this is an AU.

**StargateFFWriter:** yes i did read his story, i'm just not happy he has slowed down so much with his writing.

**danielu722:** one chapter every week 'till the book is over, as i promised.

**Senrab Nomis:** Well, it wasn't such a hard guess. Gerak is such an obnoxious character that it couldn't be any other way. And he should stay evil as opposed to what happened in the show.

Thanks everybody for your comments. If you have questions or suggestions post them and I'll answer them in my next chapter or through PM.

* * *

**Andromeda – Aboard Liam's Ship**

There was something Liam really liked about his ship. There was nobody on it. He could spend hours alone, thinking of what challenges still awaits him in the near or distant future and what moves he needs to make to win so many enemies in so many distant places. The logistics was a nightmare. He had to plan everything for three distinct galaxies all the time, taking into account that not all ships can move freely between those galaxies in any useful time. Every galaxy had to be protected and every galaxy had to have the needed resources even though these three galaxies were much different. For some reason, finding precious metals was in general a very easy task in the Andromeda galaxy. There was plenty of Naquadah and Trinum, but the galaxy for some reason lacked Neutronium. Thankfully the Pegasus galaxy didn't have such a problem, but on the other hand it lacked other resources he would have to bring from other galaxies. The stargate was a great thing, but it had never being built as a mean to transport large amounts of various materials across galaxies.

Strangely enough, the Ori had given him the idea how to solve such a problem. Creating a gate through which you can send transport ships was a great way to transfer resources whenever needed and if he could make three supergates he could connect the three galaxies, that way solving almost all of his problems. The only problem was that he didn't have a clue how to tap a supergate into a black hole, as the only way he knew it could supply enough energy to the power hungry device indefinitely. The Ori had somehow found a way to channel such tremendous amounts of energy from the black hole, but such knowledge was currently above his pay grade. He'd already done the necessary calculation on how much energy he would need and he came to the conclusion that at least twenty ZPMs were needed to make a supergate dial another close by galaxy, and with intensive use, the ZPMs would end up depleted in mere months. He didn't like it. He had enough ZPMs for now, but knowing that he couldn't build more of them in any useful quantity made him think this was a bad investment. Yet he thought that currently he didn't have any better use for the very useful devices and if he minimized the usage of the supergates when it was really needed, he could make them last a lot longer. Another little problem was that the supergates, powered by ZPMs, were far from being indestructible like the Ori supergate was, but he hoped he would never have to find out how strong they really are. Once he had built them of course.

Except for the logistical troubles he was having, there was also another thing that was bothering him and William noticed the instant he entered the bridge.

"Penny for your thoughts?" William asked in a rather strange manner, at least for someone not from Earth. He was spending too much time watching Earth shows.

Liam turned to William, not understanding what he meant exactly, "What?"

"It's an Earth expression. It means you need to start telling me what's wrong."

"Oh, well... where to begin," Liam said pausing for a moment. "Lately I've been thinking about what happened when the prior attacked me."

"Why is this bothering you so much?"

"Because I still don't know what happened to me, not exactly. I was sure I was going to die that day too."

"But you haven't and that is the only thing that matters, isn't it?"

"I guess," Liam replied, but his voice betrayed him.

"So, what else happened there that made you so worried?"

"The way I reacted."

William thought about it for a while, still not fully understanding what the problem was, "Look, the bastard attacked you and you reacted. It was self-defense. What else there is to think about?"

Liam sighed, "Was it self-defense?"

William was now curious. He decided to play the shrink in the story, "What do _you_ think it was?"

"I think I killed him. I think it was murder."

William decided to continue playing the shrink, "Why you think it was murder?"

"Because when the prior grabbed me I was afraid for my life, but when I felt that surge of energy flowing through me, the only thing I felt was rage, thinking of the prior as nothing more than an ant that needs to be crushed."

William was thoughtful. He knew what was going on here. If it was true that Liam thought of the prior as nothing more than an ant, he most certainly didn't think his life was in jeopardy, not anymore at least, and self-defense doesn't apply if you don't fear for your life, "Look, nobody is going to judge you for what you did, but I also know that you can be the harshest judge when it comes to judging yourself, so if you think that it wasn't self-defense, then somebody could always say you acted while overwhelmed by uncontrollable rage. If I was a lawyer, I would argue temporary insanity, and that again means it wasn't murder."

Liam chucked, "Temporary insanity! Thank you for that. Now I feel much better."

"Hey! It's just a lawyer's term. It doesn't mean you are crazy, bonkers, a nutcase…"

"I get the picture, thank you! Somehow I think I felt better before you tried to play the shrink," Liam said, letting William know that he was aware of what he was doing.

"Ah well, if you feel like that then don't ask for my help next time."

"I won't, don't worry. And for the record, I didn't ask for your help this time either."

Their little _conversation_ was interrupted when one of the consoles beeped, notifying Liam the Asgard had just arrived. He used the console in front of him to contact Thor.

"Thor. Is everything ready on your part?" Liam asked after the connection was established.

"It is. We are ready whenever you are," Thor replied simply.

"Then we start immediately."

The connection ended and the now complete fleet with a dozen Guardian ships and as many O'Neill battlecruisers entered hyperspace for the short trip that was going to take them in front of the spatial anomaly. Two minutes later the fleet exited hyperspace, finding two dozen Senari warships waiting for them there. They immediately turned toward the incoming fleet, raising shields and powering up their weapon arrays in anticipation for the battle that was about to begin. There was no doubt about who would win the fight. The Asgard and Guardian's ships were much more powerful than what the Senari had at their disposal.

The two fleets entered weapons range, firing immediately with all the weapons they had. Drones flew from the Guardians ships targeting critical systems on the approaching enemy ships, while energy beams and plasma bolt were already crashing into their shields, taking a more brute force approach to dealing with the enemy. The Senari ships were capable of fending of a few of the energy beams, but when several concurrent or in quick succession beams would strike a Senari heavy cruiser, the shields would flare shortly only to drop, letting the deadly weapons hit the ship's hull. While the Asgard energy bolts smashed large chunks of the Senari ships into nothingness, the energy beams of the guardians ship went through, melting the hull as well as anything else in their path. When that happened the energy beam's containment field would collapse, letting the compressed particles loose in all directions inside the ship. Devastation would quickly follow, with secondary explosions occurring wherever the particles would hit something volatile like the reactors or power conduits.

Several Senari warships exploded under the sustained bombardment from a much bigger and stronger opponent, while drones went through their shields as if there was nothing to stop them, disabling even more of them in record time. As predicted the fight was one sided with the allied fleet having the clear advantage.

Through the anomaly, located behind the Senari vanguard, dozens upon dozens, quickly numbering in more than a hundred Senari ships erupted. As Liam had predicted, the Senari ships watching the anomaly were only bait, while the real fleet had been waiting behind the anomaly for the right moment to come through to engage the enemy.

Liam watched the ships coming through the anomaly, his ship waiting in front of them rather than engaging the fleet that was clearly only bait.

Liam turned to William, "Launch the TDT, and synchronize with the fleet to attack the main element of their force at T plus ten seconds."

"Ay-ay captain," William replied clearly in the mood.

The TDT was Liam's prototype time-dilation torpedo he had spent many months to build. The idea of using a time dilation device as a weapon fascinated him immensely. The idea was to create a bubble in which time would pass much slower, hence trapping an enemy fleet inside while their own ships would remain free from any temporal effect on the outside. The TDT was a great invention and Liam believed it would come in handy on many occasions, but there were two things that limited his usefulness. The first problem was the torpedo was useful only if the enemy fleet was amassed all together in one place so that the bubble could encompass as many of the enemy ships as possible while leaving friendlies outside and free from any ill effect. The second limitation was that the temporal distortion lasted for only 0.2 seconds. Of course, the torpedo was inside the distortion and with a factor of thousand the 0.2 seconds inside the bubble were actually 200 seconds on the outside. Long enough for any fleet to wreak havoc on the enemy fleet inside.

The torpedo flew toward the center of the newly arrived fleet, detonating and creating an expanding sphere that, ship after ship, engulfed them all, freezing them in time. In the meantime, the allied fleet had left the few remaining Senari warships as unimportant with the task to fire at the main fleet ten seconds after the torpedo activated the time dilation field. The fleet positioned itself close to the edge of the bubble, all simultaneously firing when the ten seconds had elapsed.

There was also another effect of the time dilation bubble. It would greatly increase their weapons strength. A fired energy beam or plasma bolt would travel until it reaches the edge of the bubble where it would be compressed and shortened by a factor of a thousand, the same as the factor of the time dilation field.

The energy beams were compressed at the edge, stuck there and waiting for the time dilation bubble to collapse. This happened because time inside was passing too slowly for the beam movement to be even seen. A beam shortened and compressed by a thousand times also meant the beam's force was thousand times greater and only waiting for the moment the bubble would collapse to continue its voyage. The allied fleet continued firing on various ships inside the bubble, only to change and fire again and again at others. Soon, the side of the bubble from where the allied fleet was firing was so saturated with energy weapons that the crew of the ships could barely imagine what would happened when the bubble collapsed.

The 200 seconds elapsed, with the bubble disappearing into nothingness and with the massive amount of firepower finally continuing their voyage to their designated targets. Hundreds upon hundreds of weapon's fire crushed into the enemy ships destroying everything and everyone in their path. The enemy hadn't even understood what happened to them, as for them only 0.2 seconds had passed.

The fleet continued firing at the few ships that still remained functional and willing to fight from the initial hundred more large fleet. The few ships from the vanguard also joined the fray, but it was a futile attempt.

Liam watched at the destruction in front of him, utterly awestruck what a _simple_ torpedo could accomplish. If it wasn't for the torpedo and Liam who understood what the Senari were planning, the allied fleet would have had many losses and there was even the possibility they wouldn't have won this battle.

"And you worry about one prior! Look what you just did!" William retorted angrily at Liam.

"Well, if you look at it like that, I have to admit, there is no comparison." Liam admitted reluctantly.

Liam continued watching as the fleet made short work of the few remaining ships. It was a clear victory with zero losses on their side and… too many for the enemy.

The battle was over and the fleet was now moving all the debris that were in front of the anomaly. It took them almost an hour to move them all, but once they were done other ships came hauling the four large weapon's platforms that were going to stay here and fire at anything that would come through the anomaly and into the Andromeda galaxy. Two transport ships also started laying thousands upon thousands of antimatter mines directly in front of the anomaly as additional security for whatever or whoever decides to test his luck by coming here. The first part of the mission was over. They now only had to find the remaining Senari warships that were still wandering inside the Andromeda galaxy in order to clear the galaxy of the plague that infested it for the last couple of years, the one that had killed so many races that didn't even have the means to defend themselves. It would take some time to find them all and, in that time, the guardians would need to keep a defensive force to protect the four platforms from being destroyed from behind. The platforms were incredibly powerful, there was no doubt about it, but the platforms had their weapons turned toward the anomaly and they didn't have any weapons facing the other sides from which an enemy could destroy them with impunity. Liam hoped it wouldn't take long though. His estimates were that there was only a couple of dozens Senari ships in the Andromeda galaxy, some of them being only simple scout ships and not posing any real threat, but still the idea was to find them all and get rid of them as fast as possible. He had to hurry. He needed to focus more on the Milky Way galaxy and as soon as possible. The Ori were too much of a threat to leave them wandering around.

His job here was done and he instructed William to leave for the space station, the home of the Guardian's Order, where he was going to continue working on the many things that still needed to be done. Thor also followed Liam. He wanted to spend some time with him discussing what their next step was going to be. The Asgard were now in a good place, with their infrastructure completely rebuilt and their numbers rising fast. Since the cloning process wasn't an issue anymore, they could revive many Asgard whose consciousness had been stored for safekeeping.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – TIA Corvette**

The small cargo ship left Earth's atmosphere, pushing deeper into space. The ship was ugly, there was no question about it, but it was capable of traveling to other planets and that was the only thing China needed from the small ship. They knew they didn't have the resources to build a fleet of advanced ships, they barely had enough Naquadah for the ship's reactor and the only way they could get more was by getting a Stargate back home and then by starting a mining operation on another planet. Even the idea of using the ship to start a mining operation and also to haul Naquadah from somewhere else was ridiculous.

The ship had a hyperdrive reverse engineered from an old type Tel'tak. The same design the Americans tried to use on their first attempt at FTL travel. All that meant the ship had a limited reach and coupled with a limited amount of Naquadah to power it, it was easy to come to the conclusion how they really needed a Stargate if they wanted to travel the stars.

The small ship, manned by an even smaller crew of only ten people, finally cleared from Earth's orbit and the strong gravitational force that could negatively influence the hyperdrive. The ship finally opened a hyperspace window and sped inside it. It would take them almost a day to reach a planet that had a stargate on it. The thing they didn't know was that the TIA had already placed a subspace transponder on their ship and that a cloaked TIA corvette was shadowing them from the moment they'd exited Earth's atmosphere.

Bishop, the TIA agent in charge of this mission and also the acting captain of the TIA's sleek recon corvette watched as information filled his console. As he read the data his eyes grew larger in disbelief and utter disappointment, "Fuck!"

The small crew turned to see why the captain was cursing so early when the mission had barely started. "What is it?" Malcolm asked in puzzlement.

"If they don't plan on changing their course, it means those idiots are going to Tantalus. They must think they'll find a Stargate there that nobody is using," Bishop answered.

It was true. The closest planets to Earth were Tantalus and Abydos, and the Chinese must have known Abydos was off limit since, even before the attack on Earth, the SGC had a mining operation there and friends among the people on the planet, but what they didn't know was that Tantalus wasn't an abandoned planet anymore. Bishop realized that the changes on the planet happened much later, only after the initial talks about the formation of the Second Great Alliance had already started and that fact had never been released to the public. Because of it, the Chinese were unaware of the planet now having a large complex with people from four distinct races on it and that the planet was more than well defended. The thing that Bishop wasn't clear about was why the Chinese had decided to go to Tantalus since if they'd read the SGC reports, they should know the planet didn't have a working DHD and without it their mission would be only half successful. Then he noticed the next planet with a Stargate on it was on a just slightly different course from where they were going. They must have planned to go to Tantalus first and take the gate there and then proceed to the next planet on their list. It made sense, but that didn't change the fact that they would get a nasty surprise once they reached Tantalus. Bishop thought how maybe their mission could end much sooner than he had previously thought it would if the Chinese did something stupid once they got there. The Guardians were in charge of the planet's defenses and any sign of aggression would end up in China's first ship being blasted into million pieces. After spending some time thinking about the pros and cons of their ship being obliterated, he decided it was above his pay grade. He contacted HQ on a secure channel and informed them of what he'd learned. They would decide what to do with the information. As it turned out, they didn't like the idea of the ship being destroyed by the Guardians, so the Guardians had been promptly informed of their arrival and that they should be extra patient with the new visitors.

The captain of the small cargo ship must have been utterly dumbstruck when he saw what awaited him on the planet. The Guardians initiated contact with the small ship, informing them how they had just entered a restricted area and that any sign of aggression would be construed as a hostile act and dealt with accordingly. The captain of the ship was smart enough to understand it was time to leave this place because the ship turned as fast as it was physically possible, speeding into hyperspace once again. The TIA ship registered a short burst of encrypted data that the small ship had sent, probably informing their leaders of what they had found on the planet. The TIA agents had no problem deciphering the content of the message. They'd found out the data contained images of what was on Tantalus. This was also a problem. Now the Chinese knew about Tantalus and since the planet was so close to Earth, they would most certainly realize the Terrans were _somehow_ involved.

It had taken another day for the incredibly slow ship to reach their second target, another planet with a working Stargate and DHD. The planet was uninhabited, thus the perfect opportunity for them to take the gate and DHD without anyone to know about it. The ship entered the planet's atmosphere, descending toward where the gate was located and landing only meters from it. The crew of the small ship went to work in order to prepare the gate to be pulled inside the ship.

This was also the cue the TIA agents had been waiting the whole time. The Chinese were outside the ship working on the gate and DHD, with only the pilot still inside. Four TIA agents beamed inside the ship in the rear section where the hyperdrive was located. They went to work, messing with the circuits of the hyperdrive. With them, there was an engineer specialized in hyperdrive technology capable of repairing any kind of malfunction even with some duct-tape and a gum if necessary, but he was also capable of provoking them when it was needed. They worked fast and in only ten minutes everything was ready. They beamed back to their ship waiting in orbit the whole time. They now only had to wait and see what would happen.

It had taken another two hours for the Chinese to make the necessary preparations before lifting the ship above the Stargate and pulling it inside through the bottom side doors with some kind of crane. The ship sped into orbit, continuing further into space until they were distant enough to open a hyperspace window. The ship entered hyperspace on a course for Earth, only to drop out seven light-hours from their previous location a few seconds later with their hyperdrive fried and power system shut down. The plan worked perfectly, with the ship disabled but also distant enough to take them at least a few days to even return back to this planet. The crew of the TIA ship snickered mischievously at their predicament. Everything worked perfectly and with their job done, the ship sped into hyperspace on a course for home.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – P3X-267**

Fighting the Ori at the Supergate didn't go as Rak'nor had thought it would. He had witnessed what the Tau'ri ships could do and he was impressed and even a little intimidated by it, especially when the Aurora class warships had saved them at the battle of Dakara when they had destroyed Baal's large fleet. At the time, he had to reevaluate the Jaffa's position in the galaxy, as he understood they were not as powerful as he thought they were. Then he heard of the Guardians, led by an Ancient apparently, and the rumors how they were even more powerful than the Tau'ri and his idea of the FJN's position in the galaxy had to slide downward once again. But all that paled when he saw the destructive power of the Ori's warships with their weapons capable of destroying the pride of the Jaffa fleet with ease. The upgraded Ha'tak ships had been easily destroyed with a single shot and in mere minutes his fleet had been smashed into half by an enemy who was in a clear numerical inferiority. It was only luck that his ship wasn't among those having been destroyed. The worst part of all was their complete inability to inflict any kind of damage to the Ori vessels. Only the constant bombardment of the Terran strongest ship coupled with the help of others had been enough to destroy one of the three Ori warships. He really didn't like how low the Jaffa were on the galactic power scale.

Teal'c promised the next batch of ships to come out of this planet's shipyards would go to reinforce his battle group, which effectiveness had been severally hampered in the battle against the Ori and since his battle group was currently attached to another as reinforcement rather than wandering at half strength, the only thing he could do was to spend time on this rock and monitor if the work here progressed as it should. It would be weeks before the first of the three shipyards on the planet finished the first ship and he didn't like the idea of spending so much time here. The only positive side he could think of was that the ships he would receive were of a new design. The Tau'ri had helped them understand the incredible ineffectiveness of their current ships and when they understood what the Tau'ri were telling them, they had to agree. Their ships needed to change. The Ha'tak received a complete overhaul, still looking the same on the outside, but with many differences on the inside. The first thing that had to go were the many decorations that made the ship more expensive and more difficult to build without giving any advantage in battle. They again had to agree. Having decorations made of gold only made the Ha'tak heavier than it needed to be. The next step was to use the available space on the ship a little better. When he had seen the new design the Tau'ri had presented, he couldn't believe what they'd managed to accomplish even without changing the exterior hull. The first thing the Tau'ri did was to remove the many cargo rooms on the ship, simply stating that the ship wasn't meant for transport but as a warship. The Tau'ri also noticed the excessive size of the corridors and various halls. Again, Rak'nor had to agree. Corridors, in which five or even more people could walk side by side was too much and frankly he didn't know for what purpose they would need them so big or even why so many of them. You could easily get lost in the endless maze of corridors on the ship. The resulting design allowed for two reactors instead of one, giving the ship double the power even without the changes they had made to the reactors, and there were plenty of those as well. The design also had thirty percent more plasma cannons with several larger once as their primary weapons against capital ships and with other much smaller, capable of firing much faster and also with greater accuracy. The designs also showed a few more shield generators having been placed on the ship giving the ship the much needed increase in defensive capabilities. The two reactors were going to provide more than enough power for the new systems and coupled with a few minor changes to the hyperdrive, the ship would be able to achieve double the previous speed. The best part of what the Tau'ri did was that they wouldn't have to learn some new tech or need to change the production line for the various components too much since everything was based on the same tech as before, just with better allocation of space and minor changes to sustain the increase in power. The new batch of ships was going to be at least two times more resistant, with at least a fifty percent effective increase in firepower and Rak'nor thought how it was about time they got something better. He thought those new ships would do a great job of disposing of the Lucian Alliance as from the outside the ships looked the same as the old models, but the Lucian Alliance would get a nasty surprise when the fight would eventually start.

Rak'nor's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he saw something strange happening near one of the shipyards below. Several dozen Jaffa were gathering together with their weapons in hand. As far as he knew there was no reason for so many Jaffa to have their weapons trained. There was nobody to shoot at. He watched as the group of Jaffa suddenly started shooting at other Jaffas who didn't even have their weapons with them. They were killing innocent Jaffa down there without any reason for doing it. Then he noticed more groups of Jaffa also firing and killing other Jaffa with impunity. Some of them were now closing on his location, him clearly being their target. He didn't even have his staff weapon with him and he knew the only thing he could do was to run.

Rak'nor began running with only two options at his disposal. The first was to run toward the gate and dial another planet, but he knew that if there were so many opponents here, there was a great chance the gate was also well guarded. He decided he needed to reach one of the Tel'tak stationed on the planet and try to leave the planet by ship. His only hope was that the enemy Jaffa would be too busy killing people near the shipyards to watch over the Tel'taks.

Rak'nor reached the first Tel'tak and saw two guards in front of the small cargo ship. Still, it was much better than what he thought the reception would have been near the gate and the lack of a weapon was only a minor obstacle he knew how to overcome. He silently approached one of the guards from behind and grabbed his staff weapon. He struggled for control over the weapon for a moment before he was able to point it at the other guard who couldn't fire at him if he didn't want to hit the other guard. The second guard dropped to the ground dead and Rak'nor now only needed to take care of the guard he was holding from behind. He brought the staff to the guard's neck, slowly suffocating him until it dropped to the ground unconscious. He didn't wait for any more surprises, immediately moving inside the Tel'tak and closing the door behind. He powered the ship and took off as fast as he could. The small cargo ship sped upward, leaving the planet's atmosphere shortly after. Upon reaching orbit, he saw two Ha'taks in geosynchronous orbit above the shipyards. His ship received the identification codes of the two Ha'taks and he knew those ships belonged to Gerak. Rage filled Rak'nor's mind, finally realizing what Gerak was doing. He knew there was no way of stopping him at the moment and he also knew the only thing he could and should do was to find the first planet with a stargate and gate to Dakara in order to inform the Council of Gerak's treachery. Rak'nor opened a hyperspace window and sped inside the newly formed opening. He had an important mission to complete and there was no time to waste.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – The Tower planet**

Weir, John and the rest of his team stepped through the already opened stargate. The planet they'd just set foot on was the same the SGA-1 had already visited almost three years ago. It had been here that the team had found another flying city, although it wasn't in any shape to be flied anywhere. The inhabitants of the planet had used the flying city to protect the planet from Wraith raids with the drones, one of the few systems that had still worked at the time. After John's team had arrived on the planet, they had depleted the already strained ZPM when their self-proclaimed new ruler had tried to use the drones to attack the villagers.

Now, after almost three years, the Terrans had decided to pay them another visit, and this time, it was with a good reason.

It had taken almost half an hour to reach the outskirts of the village, with the tower still being the only visible part of the flying city. As they entered the small square in the village, the team was greeted by a patrol, very curious who they were or what they wanted.

One of the guards approached the new arrivals with caution, "Who are you, and what's your business here?"

"We are from Atlantis. We would like to speak to whoever is in charge here," Weir replied.

The guard continued to look at them intently. He knew how the people who came here three years ago looked like and what kind of strange clothes they had at the time, but now, these people were wearing a different type of clothes. As he searched through the faces in front of him, trying to see if some of these people had also been on the planet three years ago, he stopped once he looked at Ronon. It didn't take long for him to remember the man that had beaten the living shit out of him, as well as of two other guards that had been with him, all singlehandedly without any weapon.

The guard flinched slightly knowing full well the smirk on Ronon's face meant he recognized him as well. To make things even more uncomfortable, these people now looked even more menacing than the last time they met, with a lot more weapons and wearing some kind of armored vest that could probably stop anything they could throw at them. The guard decided it would be a good thing to just let them go wherever they wish to go without too many questions, "Please, follow me."

The team followed the guard to the tower. As they entered inside, they all noticed the central room was without power and the only thing that illuminated the room was from the top windows and a few candles here and there. Everything else looked pretty much like they all remembered. Mara, standing in the ancient chair, had immediately noticed the new arrivals and especially John. She rose from the chair and with all haste she half walked half ran towards him, immediately embracing him. She was clearly happy to see him, "John, you are here!"

"Hello Mara. Long time no see." John replied a little awkwardly.

After the initial surprise of seeing him, Mara realized something, immediately stopping her embrace. She began looking at John in a disappointed manner, "Where have you been for three years?"

John shrugged. How can you answer to such a question, "Well, I've been very busy."

Mara didn't like the answer she'd just received, and yet she suddenly started smiling, "It doesn't matter. You are here now, and we have a lot to catch up."

"Sure," John replied, again not knowing what to say.

Next to John and a very exuberant Mara, Weir was thinking if she should try to find out how much her fighting skills have improved since she started training a few months back. The only thing she didn't know was who she wanted to beat the crap out more, John or Mara, "Mara, it is a pleasure to meet you. I'm Elizabeth Weir, and I'm the leader of the Atlantis expedition."

Mara finally turned from her constant gaze at John toward the new voice she'd just heard, "Oh, hello. I'm Mara. I'm the leader of my people."

"How did that happen? I mean, I thought after all that happened here, your brother would be the next ruler." John asked.

"Yes, and in a way we are sharing the throne, but after the way he behaved the last time we saw each other, nobody really wanted him as our ruler. In the end, we had to compromise, so we both have decided to share the title and try to help our people for once instead of spending all our time fighting among ourselves and doing nothing all day. His duties are with the military, while I work with more mundane stuff as he calls them, like if our people have enough food, what we are going to do with our city, and stuff like that." Mara explained while smiling.

"Well, I'm impressed. I was afraid you would have continued to plot against each other like you used to, but I'm glad to see this isn't the case."

"Well, a lot has changed in these three years. As you can imagine, nobody cares anymore if you can use that chair or not, since it doesn't work anyway, but I have the feeling you didn't come all this way to just talk about what we have done in all that time."

Weir decided it was time to start with the real reason for being here, "You are right. We are here to ask you something."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"We would like to take this tower and everything below it."

"Take it? What do you mean?" Mara asked, not really understanding.

"This place and what you call catacombs is an Ancient City and we would like to repair it and use it."

Mara blinked in quick succession, "But this is our home. Where would we go?"

"You don't have to worry about that. We are more than willing to build you an entire new city, one that it doesn't threaten to crumble any moment. You must know by now that this tower can maybe remain this way for another five or maybe ten years, but sooner or later it will come down, with you inside it."

This was a lot to think about and Mara did know how fragile the tower had become. Earthquakes had also become more common than what it had been in the past, and every day they would find some wall with new cracks on it. All this was telling her their offer was something she should consider, but she was still emotionally tied to this place, the place where she grew up and where she thought she would spend the rest of her life. "What kind of city?"

Weir smiled. This was the first sign she was considering the idea. "The kind that can hold all of your people in it, with heated houses and if you want with a large tower in the middle where you and the rest of the royal families can live."

Mara was more than just interested in what they were offering. Her people were already telling her that the Tower would sooner or later come down, and that they needed to start thinking of alternative accommodations. Now, she had the opportunity to have a new city, and not only for her, but for the entire population. She turned toward John for counsel, "What do you think?"

"Mara, we are not here to tell you what to do. We just think our proposition could be beneficial for both sides. We may be able to repair this city and use it in the war against the Wraith and you and your people will get a new place to live, one that doesn't falls apart," John explained.

"We would also be more than happy to teach you and your people if you want," Weir added.

"Teach us what?"

"Whatever you want to know. We can build you schools where our people can teach yours about everything you are willing to learn. We can teach you how to read our written language, and give you books from which you can learn much more. Actually there is practically no limit to what we can teach you."

This part was also very interesting to Mara, but it was also frightening. Still, she wasn't one to back down from things that would frighten her and she wasn't about to start now, "I still have to talk to the others, and you should be present as well when I talk to my brother, but I really like this proposal and I'm inclined to accept."

Weir was glad. They now have to convince her brother and the deal would be done. Borealis, the second ancient city, would be a nice addition. It also made her heart bleed to see the city slumber like this. It was one of the few things that were once part of the Alterran Empire and she would really like to be able to repair it to her former glory. "I'm glad to hear you say that. When can we meet with your brother and the others?"

"Not long. He should return soon."

As Mara had promised, her brother Tavius had returned and with a few other members of the royal family's inner circle, and together they had discussed the faith of the slumbering city. It didn't take long for the rest of the people there to, as well, accept the terms proposed by the Terrans, eagerly expecting when the building of their new city would begin.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania**

The never-ending work Jack had to go through every day had been interrupted by the sudden visit from Teal'c and Bra'tac. He was glad. Any excuse forcing him to leave his much-hated office was more than welcomed. Or, at least, that was what Jack thought until he heard the reason why they were here.

The two Jaffa followed Jack who was leading them into a small conference room where Daniel was already awaiting their arrival. Once inside, they sat on the various chairs around the large table in the room, Teal'c and Bra'tac on one side, with Jack and Daniel on the other.

"So, what's up?" Jack asked seeing that nobody else wanted to start speaking.

"Something happened that you must be informed of," Teal'c said.

"Oh, from your tone, I get the sense it isn't anything we will go celebrate later," Jack replied.

"It is not," Teal'c said in a somber tone. "As you are aware, I had to openly confront Gerak after he refused to send a fleet to the location where the supergate is located. The Council voted with two thirds against him, enough to relieve him of his leadership."

"I'm aware of that fact and the only thing I can say is… it was about time!"

Teal'c wasn't of the same opinion, "We had the necessary votes to relieve him many months before and we did not use them because we knew there would be repercussions if Gerak was deposed, and now, what we feared has just happened."

"What happened?" Jack said, not joking anymore.

"Gerak split from the FJN, and the Jaffa are now split in half."

"I'm sorry about that, I really am, but I also think, in the long run, it is for the best."

"I am not that confident O'Neill," Teal'c said, clearly not liking what is happening to his people. "With the three Ha'taks we lost when we faced the Ori, Gerak has now an even greater military advantage over us and he also has more resources than we have. Only now we have found out that Gerak had planted his people on several strategically important planets and we think it is only a matter of time before Gerak starts a war."

"You don't have to say anything more. We are more than happy to help you beat the crap out of that old bastard." Jack said, and he really meant it.

"Uh, Jack… you know that little thing we are about to sign with the other great races," Daniel said, referring to the formation of the Second Great Alliance and all the rules that come with it.

"Yeah, what about it?" Jack asked, also knowing to what Daniel was referring to, but also knowing it wouldn't be a problem to get Liam or the Asgard on board with this.

"You shouldn't promise things you don't know if you can keep," Daniel explained.

Jack was about to reply to Daniel, when Teal'c interjected, "It does not matter. Gerak is our problem and not yours. This is our war."

"That's crap Teal'c and you know it. We are involved in this as much as you are. With all the various enemies lurking around in this galaxy, we don't have the luxury to fight them separately. And as far as the Second Great Alliance's rules is concerned, leave that to me. I don't think there will be any problems convincing them that we must stop Gerak from whatever he is planning on doing. After all, we can be sure Gerak will take the first opportunity to attack us as well, so whatever help you need in fighting him, you ask, and you shall receive… period," Jack explained in a rather lengthy fashion, having to take several deep breaths.

Teal'c nodded, agreeing with Jack's sentiment. He also understood Jack's plan to let the Jaffa fight this war and only provide support when needed. It was Jack's way of letting him know how he respected them as warriors, but at the same time, also letting them know he would provide everything they would ask for.

Bra'tac was pensive the whole time, also understanding what was happening, but also thinking of some rumors he had heard, "There is also something else. We only heard a few unsolicited rumors and we do not know if there is any truth to them, but there is a chance Gerak has become a prior."

Now it was time for Daniel and Jack to be dumbstruck, not really knowing how to reply to such revelation. This changed things considerably since Gerak allying himself with the Ori presented a much greater threat that they'd previously believed. Jack turned to face Daniel with a quizzical expression, "Well, that changes things, and not for the better."

"We are aware of it, but as I said, these are only rumors we still need to prove if they are truthful," Bra'tac continued.

"Yes, well, rumors or not, we must plan accordingly. No matter if he is or isn't a prior, what do you think Gerak's next move will be?"

Teal'c and Bra'tac looked at each other, Teal'c being the one to answer Jack's question first, "Dakara. We don't know if it will be his first target, but eventually he will have to attack Dakara if he wants to win."

"Yeah, I think that too. Only if Dakara is in his hands he will be able to turn the majority of the Jaffa to his side. There is also something else you should be aware of, something we have found out only recently. We left one cloaked ship to monitor the supergate and six hours ago, three more Ori ships came through. We now also know why the Ori left the battle even though they clearly had the advantage there. Vala didn't die as we have previously thought and she managed to escape from one of their ships. The problematic part is that she gave birth to a girl that is now already old enough to be their leader. They refer to her as the Orici, their leader, and she's a real and living Ori. Don't ask me how any of this is possible because I don't' have a clue." Jack explained their current predicament.

"So, now the Ori have five ships in this galaxy, and if Gerak is working for them, we are in real trouble," Daniel continued explaining. "The only positive side is that Sam thinks she'd found a way to block the supergate from bringing more ships, something we're already planning on doing in a few days tops. Let's hope no more ships will come through until then."

Again, Teal'c and Bra'tac looked at each other, almost as if they had some kind of telepathic ability to communicate their thoughts without having to actually speak. Teal'c turned to face Jack, "We will have to bring back all ships that are currently too far to help in case Dakara is attacked. We cannot risk having ships days or even weeks from Dakara while Gerak and the Ori have so many at their disposal."

"And that will greatly affect our efforts against the Lucian Alliance and the remaining Goa'uld that are still free and hiding somewhere. This is not good." Jack said, not liking what was happening.

"We know, but there is nothing else we can do," Bra'tac said, also not liking the situation they were in.

"I think there is," Jack said after thinking what else they could do. "You should redeploy you fleet, that's true, but I think you shouldn't bring them all back. First of all, there is no guarantee whatever you bring back home will be enough to stop an attack from Gerak, especially if he has help from the Ori. Secondly, a complete retreat will give the Lucian Alliance and the Goa'uld what they need to go on the offensive and that is something we _really_ don't need right now."

Teal'c looked at Jack, knowing he must have some alternative course of action if he was proposing this, "What do you have in mind?"

"I'll speak with Liam, but even the Terrans have a surplus of ground cannons that we can place on Dakara and that will be more than enough to give a bloody nose to anyone foolish enough to attack the planet. Dakara has only one city that needs to be protected, so we can concentrate all our cannons into protecting a small region of the planet's surface." Jack explained his idea, really thinking it was a much better solution than to bring every ship they have back to Dakara. He also knew the FJN ships had no chance in hell of defending Dakara against even one of the Ori behemoths.

Teal'c and Bra'tac had to agree, it was a much better solution than to bring all of their ships back home. If they did, it would only allow the Lucian Alliance to roam free in their territory and they knew Gerak wouldn't move a muscle to fight them. He would rather spend all of his effort attacking the FJN. There was also another thing Jack suggested that, both, Teal'c and Bra'tac didn't like, but still had to agree it was the best way to go. He suggested they should leave Gerak alone and face him in battle only if they'd have the clear advantage. They didn't understand why Jack would suggest such strange and cowardly move, but once he explained they understood he only wanted to make Gerak overconfident, something that would probably make him prone to bold actions that would usually turn into reckless ones they could exploit. In most wars, where you have to think of the whole picture rather than a single battle, direct confrontation is never the answer. Instead, careful planning and tricking the opponent into believing something that isn't the real situation usually gives much better results. If Gerak became too confident, something that was a clear possibility since the man was an arrogant prick, they could gain the advantage they need for a decisive victory.

Their little gathering that resulted in many disturbing revelations ended, with Teal'c and Bra'tac leaving for Dakara, and Jack and Daniel going back to their usual work, which mostly consisted of working in their offices. Jack thought how he would probably have to spend the rest of the day cooked up in his office when he received a call from President Hayes informing him he needs to come to visit him as soon as possible. Of course, Jack jumped at he opportunity to go anywhere that wasn't his office. He left the same instant he got the message.

* * *

**Earth – The President's Office**

Jack materialized in the Presidential office practically the same moment Hayes ended the call and by doing so he startled the hell out of the President.

"Jack! I didn't think you were planning on dropping the instant I called. Tell me the truth, you wanted to leave your office or something like that?" the President asked, knowing full well what could be the reason for such haste.

"Mr. President, I'm hurt by your insinuation. I would _never _leave my job on Terrania unfinished. I just had a little time right now," Jack explained, but his face betrayed him enough for someone like Hayes to know he was lying through his teeth.

Hayes chuckled, "Sure Jack, I know you would never do something like that."

Jack had to steer the conversation as soon as possible, "So, why did you want me here?"

Hayes sighed, "We got words from the Chinese regarding an incident that happened to their ship two days ago."

Jack was curious about what could possibly be the reason for the Chinese to call the President for this. Unless… "They didn't blame you for what happened to their ship, did they?"

"Worse, they are asking for our help to retrieve their ship," Hayes said in a somber tone.

"They want us to do what? They must be really desperate if they think we are going to help them get their ship back," Jack said, but he also noticed the unhappy face on the President's face. "What?"

"Jack, I don't like it any more than you do, but we can't just disregard their call for help."

"Why not?" Jack asked not knowing why they couldn't. After all, the Terran Alliance had on too many occasions told the Chinese they shouldn't start a space program they are not ready for.

"It's politics Jack. If we leave their call for help go unanswered, we become the bad guys in the story and they could use it against us. They can say we had the opportunity to help, but we didn't. They can say we have decided to rather leave ten Chinese to die on some uninhabited planet, rather than help them get back home to their families and that would be catastrophic," the president explained.

Jack was thoughtful. He didn't like it one bit, "Mr. President, there is no way I'm going to help them bring a Stargate and DHD back to Earth. The repercussions would be much worse than leaving them there, no matter what repercussion could result from _not_ helping them."

"I thought you would say that and I also think we cannot allow them to bring the gate, but I also think there is no need to worry about that. The Chinese also don't want to get caught red handed with a Stargate in their cargo hold. I think they waited two days to ask us for help because they needed the time to return the gate to the planet's surface where they'd found it."

"And what if we go there and that is not the case? What if they still have the gate with them? What then?"

"Then you beam the thing on your ship and return it to the planet. I don't think you'll have any problem scanning the ship to see if the gate is still there?"

"No, that won't be a problem. Our sensors were more than capable of scanning their ship before it left the Solar System. We can do it again without problem."

"So I think we have a solution. You bring their ship back _without_ the gate."

"And what if they try to get it again? I mean, with a stranded ship they would have no chance in hell of getting a gate to Earth, but if we return the ship back to them, what is stopping them from trying to take it again?"

"Nothing, but it won't happened overnight. It will take some time to repair their hyperdrive and in that time we should find some other way to stop them from gaining a gate."

Jack was again thoughtful. It was true. They would need a lot of time to repair their ship, if at all possible. From the TIA report he read regarding the mission, their hyperdrive was completely fried, probably beyond repair. "Alright, I'll send the Prometheus to haul them back home."

Jack beamed back to Terrania, immediately calling Pendergast and telling him what his next mission would be. He really didn't like it, but the President was right. They couldn't leave the Chinese stranded now that they'd officially asked for their help. He also needed to talk to Liam, a task that wasn't easy to achieve. Usually it had been him the one to come here and not the other way around. The only way he could reach him was through the Guardian's outpost. He made the call to the outpost through the gate and received a response fifteen minutes later. Apparently, he's been invited to the Andromeda galaxy, with a short pit stop on the outpost since it was the only gate that can dial the Andromeda galaxy. He packed his bags, sort of, and left Terrania ten minutes later.

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Space Station **

Liam had as usual been working in his lab when he received a very interesting news. Apparently, there was a Senari survivor after the battle at the spatial anomaly and the strange part was that he was talking. Liam had ordered those who found him to bring him here immediately, knowing full well how important this could end up to be. Half an hour later the Senari prisoner had been brought to the station so that Liam could ask him a few questions in person. To Liam's astonishment the Senari prisoner wasn't just capable of answering questions without his brain turning into mush, but he was also incredibly cooperative. Of course, it took another half hour to scan his brain, specifically the region of the brain responsible for speaking because nobody could understand what he was telling them. There was a funny thing the Alterran did with the Stargate. Except for the obvious use, the Stargate was also capable of scanning the region of the brain responsible for speaking. The Stargate would store whatever language the traveler would call his native language and at the same time he would implant into the traveler's brain the languages it already had stored from others. Of course, the Alterran were smart enough to prevent anyone from actually learning hundreds of languages by just traveling through the gate. It could overload the poor bastard's brain as different species have different ability to store so many languages. Instead, the Alterrans decided to store the many languages in a way that he was aware of them only on a subconscious level and to be able to understand when somebody else would speak as he was speaking his native thong. That was also the reason why the first time SG-1 traveled to Abydos they didn't understand the people there. The Abydonians had never traveled through the gate before that day, so their language wasn't in the gate's database. The interesting fact was that the Alterrans had, for some reason, decided to not include the four languages spoken by the four races in the First Great Alliance. The reason why was unknown.

The brain scan that Liam performed on the Senari gave both of them the necessary knowledge to understand each other while still speaking their respective languages. Now that he could be understood, the Senari started answering the many questions Liam was eager to get answers to, slowly gaining a good picture of who the Senari were and why they were here attacking other races. Liam thought how the story the Senari was telling him was sad and enlightening at the same time.

Everything had begun more than a hundred thousand years ago. The Senari race, as many other before them and after them, had finally reached the level necessary to travel the stars. It was a great accomplishment for the Senari and they took that opportunity to expand to other worlds as well as a way to meet other races in their home galaxy. After hundreds of years of travel, in which time the Senari met many different races, they came to the conclusion that none were advanced enough to share knowledge with or even to simply become friends. Not one of those races had yet reached the level the Senari had reached, and mistrust and prejudice displayed towards them was too great to establish any useful relations with them. The Senari spent another hundred years, mostly in isolation, certain there were no other races that reached their level, when they found another race that was even more advanced than they were. Actually, the truth was, the other race found them while traveling from another galaxy, but the Senari thought they found at least one friend in the universe and that was enough for them.

The Vargas were very friendly towards them. They shared their understanding of the universe freely without asking for anything in return. As a result, the Senari had progressed much faster than they would have if it wasn't for the Vargas. The greatest thing the Vargas provided for them was a way to improve themselves and their lifespan. The Vargas gave them nanotechnology and a neural interface that would keep them healthy for many hundreds of years as opposed to the relatively short lifespan of only eighty years as it was average for a Senari. Little did they know what the neural implant's _primary_ function was.

It wasn't anything that would force the Senari to do something against their will. It was a much more subtle way of controlling them that would only slightly steer them toward whatever wishes the Vargas had. After many years, in which time the entire Senari population had been implanted with the neural implant, the Senari became slaves even though they didn't even realize it.

There was a small group of Senari who were too poor or for some other reason unable to get a neural implant and they were the only one who were starting to understand that something very wrong was happening to their people, but they were too few to fight both the Vargas and their own people. The only option they had at their disposal was to disappear, leaving for some other planet to live freely and prepare for the inevitable war they would have to fight in the future. Finally the real intension of the Vargas was revealed when they 'hinted' to the Senari to destroy every other race in the galaxy. The Senari were unable to say no to the Vargas since what they'd actually thought they were doing was their own will as well. Race after race in their galaxy had fallen under their merciless assaults until not one race remained alive in the entire galaxy. Then the Vargas came back to create some strange portals that would lead the Senari to other galaxies so they could do the same there as well. The Senari became slaves, soldiers and murderers who did the Vargas bidding without complaining or knowing it wasn't their own will.

Throughout the thousands of years the Senari repeated the cycle of destruction countless of times in the six galaxies the Vargas had connected with the gateways they had created. The rebels, as they were called, had tried on many occasions to find a way to stop their own people from doing those horrible things. They were trying to find a way to free their people from what the neural implant had turned them into, only to be utterly beaten by the overwhelming forces their own people and the Vargas wielded against them. There was no hope, and yet, they never stopped trying.

While the Senari was telling his sad story on how he came here to be, Jack arrived at the space station and he had been able to listen to what he thought was the most horrifying story he'd ever heard in his life and that he would probably ever hear in the future. It was very difficult to keep tears from flowing down his cheeks and he saw the same sentiment in Liam when he looked at him. Even Liam, through the many millions of years of his long life, had never heard such horrific story. He was also thinking about the repercussions, as now he knew the Senari weren't even his real enemy but the Vargas were. He then realized the dream he had with the strange and unknown enemy probably was a battle against the Vargas, the same race that imprisoned the Senari a long time ago. Unfortunately, the Senari in front of him didn't know anything more about the Vargas since they haven't visited his galaxy in more than ten thousand years. There was no reason to as he explained how the Senari would unconditionally continue to do their bidding as long as they have that terrible implant in their heads, and the rebellion didn't have the needed resources to fight them in a very long time.

The Senari also explained that he is one of the few who are immune to the neural implant, hence free to be with his _chained _brethren without raising suspicions. This way he was able to become an officer aboard the ship that Liam had destroyed in the last battle. The Senari didn't mind he was speaking to somebody that he should threat as an enemy. He saw an opportunity that didn't present itself in a very long time, as this was the first time somebody was strong enough to win against them, and not only that, but also without losing a single ship. The Senari, Mial was his name, told Liam that this was an opportunity for both of them, an opportunity they shouldn't pass on. Mial was the only one who knew what's on the other side of the anomaly and Liam was the only one who might be able to fight them.

Liam told Mial they would talk more on a later time before leaving the prisoner alone in the room with Jack in tow. He instructed a few guards to provide anything the prisoner would want and to make his staying here as comfortable as possible. Of course, he still wasn't ready to blindly trust the alien just because he told a story he thought was the saddest thing he ever heard, but something told him Mial was telling the truth.

They went to Liam's lab to talk a little more about what they'd just heard and also what Jack had to tell him.

"So, what do you think?" Liam asked after they settled in the first two chairs they'd found in the room.

"What I think? I think this was probably the saddest thing I've ever heard. And I thought I had a crappy life, with a crappy job and too many problems on my plate, but I can't even begin to understand what that guy is going through… and his entire race with him!" Jack said, really starting to dislike his first visit to the Andromeda galaxy.

"Yeah, the worst thing is that I believe him. When I first met him, I thought it was some kind of subterfuge. I thought they left him at the anomaly so that we could bring him here just so they could infiltrate our base and then somehow send what he learned back home, but I don't think this is the case here."

Jack was about to say something when _another _Liam entered the lab, just wearing different clothing, but otherwise identical to Liam. Jack watched as Liam number two strolled inside the lab toward the two of them, "What the hell! How many of you are there around here?"

Liam turned and saw William standing behind him. He then realized Jack had never been on the bridge with William also present, "Oh, him. He's the ship's avatar… an android. I let him wander through the station while we are docked so he doesn't look so depressed all the time," Liam said with a mischievous smile on his face. William looked intently at Liam, also sending him a clear mental thought telling him he was going to pay for this and saw how Liam understood the sentiment when he shrugged. Liam knew he would probably have to walk all around the ship for the next few days without the help of the teleporters. "You really don't have a sense of humor, you know that." Liam said to William.

"So, you have an android that looks like you?" Jack asked, still trying to find any difference except for the clothing. He didn't find any.

"He's not only looking like me. He _is _me in a sense."

"What?" Jack asked not getting anything of what Liam was telling him.

William decided to explain, as he thought it would be much better than letting Liam do it, "I'm a virtual intelligence created by Liam, a combination of an AI core and his consciousness as the base template for my character and basic logical patterns. Of course, I am much more than just Liam's consciousness." William concluded while looking directly at Liam, letting him know he felt superior in many ways.

"Oookay… I didn't get any of what he'd just said except that he feels superior to you, but the truth is I really don't want to know, so can we return to our previous conversation please?" Jack said.

"Yeah, you're right. You wanted to talk to me about something. What is it?" Liam said also not wanting to get into an argument with William. There was no point.

Jack took a deep breath and started explaining the reason for him being here. He explained the little turnover in the FJN affairs and the fact that Gerak is now probably a prior working for the Ori. He also told Liam that they had detected three more Ori ships passing through the gate as another bonus bad news. On another note, he also explained that Sam thinks she'd found a way to block the Ori from bringing more ships through the Supergate. He explained her plan to connect a normal size gate in the Pegasus galaxy with the Supergate, also trying to explain exactly how, but he ended his report by telling Liam he would need to ask Sam if he wanted more details. The only thing he knew was that Sam had an idea, and that her ideas work most of the time.

Liam didn't know what to say to the news he just heard. And he thought this day started so well with the victory against the Senari, only to turn out into something completely opposite with the sad truth about the Senari and with Jack giving him a lot to think about. The only thing he agreed on was the idea to protect Dakara with ground cannons as it was a much better solution than to bring back every last ship the FJN had at their disposal and in the process leaving the Lucian Alliance and the Goa'uld free to do whatever they do best and that was to bring chaos to the galaxy.

Liam decided he had enough for the day, also deciding it would be a good thing to bring Jack to Eden Prime since he was already here. They spent the rest of the day visiting the planet and Jack really liked the tour. Eden Prime was impressive and the people there were really friendly towards him. They even knew who he was and they were also trilled to see him there. Both Liam and Jack thought how at least the day ended on a much better note than how it began and Jack almost didn't want to leave the planet, wanting to relax a little longer. Liam offered that he could spend the night here if he wanted it, but Jack knew there was too much he had to do back home to just leave it unattended. They returned to the Space Station only for Jack to leave for the Milky Way galaxy. Before leaving, Liam also told him he would soon pay them a visit, before they enacted Sam's plan. He wanted to be present when it happened.

Jack returned to his office to finish a few more things. He was immediately informed the Prometheus was already back with the Chinese ship in tow. Of course, they didn't have the gate or the DHD onboard since when the Prometheus reached them they didn't have the gate anymore. The good news was also what the engineers who inspected the hyperdrive told them, Jack knew they would need to replace the entire engine if they wanted to go back into space and that would take some doing, leaving them enough time to get some other ideas on how to stop them from getting the gate and bring it back to Earth.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Unknown Genii Base**

Inside a small and dimly lit room, a group of Genii was discussing the recent developments in the Pegasus galaxy and what the future would hold for the Genii people. The group was comprised of Genii, all from the military.

"We must do something to stop this Terran menace," one of the Genii said.

"Their influence over the past few years has drastically increased. They have now more teams going on planets than ever," another one added.

"This is nothing less than a full blown invasion of the Pegasus galaxy. Yes they are always saying they are here to help and that their only motivation is to fight the Wraith and to make peaceful contact with us, but we all know this is not their real goal."

"Not all of us think that. Radim is against any type of action against them."

"Radim is weak and a fool. We should have never let him become our leader. He's a mere scientist for Ancestor's sake."

"This is what you get when you put in charge somebody not from the military."

"Enough about Radim. We have the control of the military and not him. What are we going to do with the Terran infestation?"

"Our attempts to ostracize them have failed miserably. They were able to quickly sway the populous of the Pegasus Galaxy back to them. They have merchandise everyone wants, and is not easy to say no to them. Half of them are salivating at what they have to offer, and the other half is afraid to say no to them."

"Still, we have the numbers and they don't, at least for now. If we wait any longer this could very well change."

"We must show them there is more to lose here than to gain."

One of the members present had spent the entire time sitting quietly while the others had been rumbling about the Terrans, Radim and the general unfairness of their situation, without coming to even a shred of a plan. "We must not underestimate the Terrans. They are strong, organized and have resources coming from their own galaxy. There are rumors their planet has billions of people," Kolya said with an even voice.

"How many people they have back home is of no concern to us."

Kolya looked at the man with accusing eyes, "The number of people they have back home is indicative of what they can bring here, and it also tells us what will happen if the Wraith are ever beaten. And that _is_ of concern to us."

"You think they are planning to colonize this galaxy?"

"Of course. Why else would they spend so much time and effort in eradicating the Wraith if not to colonize the Pegasus galaxy, and once they accomplish that, there will be no force here that can stop them," Kolya concluded what he thought the Terrans final goal was.

"Do you have any suggestion on how to stop them?"

Kolya remained silent for a long time. He was remembering his first encounter with them, when he'd tried to take Atlantis from them. Never before he had faced humans with such military preparation as he had in that occasion. After that day, his influence in the Genii political circles had drastically diminished and eventually Radim had taken control. He hated what had happened to him, and he blamed the Terrans for it. After that fiasco, he had spent every waking moment learning more about the Terrans, learning about their tactics, strengths and weaknesses. He had to admit the Terrans were strong, organized and with weapons far more powerful than what the Genii had. They were almost unbeatable. Almost, because they had one weakness and that was their numbers. Their teams were always small, with four or five people tops, and that was something they could exploit, because even with their advanced weapons they could not win against a much larger opponent, "We start ambushing their parties with overwhelming force. We exploit their weakness of always trying to help others in the galaxy, and we search for opportunities for a much larger strike. We know that except for Atlantis, they have other outposts on other planet. We only need to find them and strike at them with whatever we have."

"Agreed, and what about Radim?"

"Radim is of no concern to us. If he tries to undermine our attempts, we will deal with him accordingly, but for now, he is the best patsy we could have hoped for. We must attack the Terrans without leaving any trace, and even when they have some suspicions we are behind it, they will go straight to Radim, who will deny everything since he doesn't know anything," Kolya concluded.

The others nodded, approving of the plan of action Kolya had laid out for them. There was much work to be done, and the group of Genii continued to discuss the details of their diabolical plan.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aboard Gerak's Ha'tak**

Gerak stood proudly on the bridge of his flagship. He was now a prior of the Ori with all the benefits and obligations that came with the title. The Ori wanted him for a very important mission. He had been chosen to convert the Jaffa race into devoted followers of the Ori, a task he gladly accepted as he always thought he was the one who should lead the Jaffa toward a brighter future full of glory, and with the help of the Ori, he was more than certain he would be able to accomplish the task that had been given to him. The Ori also promised him they would help him fight the Tau'ri unbelievers and Gerak was more than glad for that. The idea that he would be able to finally fight the Tau'ri and destroy them was reason enough for joining the Ori, no matter if he thought what the Ori were selling was true or not. The sense of rage that overwhelmed him every time he thought about the Tau'ri was too great to pass an opportunity such as this. So strong was his rage that he was utterly oblivious of how much damage he was about to do and the fact that, if he did succeed in helping the Ori come to power, this galaxy with all the people inside would be doomed. The only thing he regretted was that his first task wasn't going to be to attack the Tau'ri, but instead to bring the rest of the FJN that opposed him and the Ori to their knees. The Jaffa were clever warriors and he knew that attacking Dakara immediately would be a mistake. The problem was he couldn't just destroy the capital city on Dakara as it would only enrage the Jaffa, pushing them away from him even more. He also knew the Council would bring most, if not the entire fleet to defend the planet and that meant too many losses on both sides before he could even begin the invasion on the planet's surface. No, he had to be smarter than that. He needed to attack much easier targets first in order to capture more ships and resources and also to force the FJN to spread in an attempt to defend other planets as well as Dakara. Only then he could have the decisive advantage he needed to attack Dakara and once he was able to conquer the planet the rest of the Jaffa would inevitably fall in line, the same way the Jaffa followed the rebels when they took Dakara from the Goa'uld. Dakara had too much significance for the Jaffa for that not to happen and after that he would only have to bring the Tau'ri to their knees and the galaxy would be his.

* * *

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	12. Chapter 12: Troubles In Pegasus

**Author's note: Here is the next chapter. A little later than usual, but I had a lot of work to do. **

**This is ****actually the last chapter I **wrote, only after I noticed a complete neglect on my part of the Pegasus Galaxy. I just had to put it here, before the last three chapters because they are too connected.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Unknown planet**

The four members of SGA-7 were walking on a small path through the woods on the way to a local village where they were about to continue their never-ending task of convincing the locals of how they're the good guys and how they could greatly benefit from an alliance with them. It was true the Terrans didn't need them, the Terrans didn't need any of the human races in the Pegasus galaxy, but Atlantis was resolute they needed to install friendly relations with as many of them as possible. One reason why was to diminish the Genii influence who were trying to do the same to them, but also because of the long term plans Atlantis had with the Pegasus Galaxy. One day, when the Wraith are only a bad memory, the Terrans were planning to build a strong community where everyone can prosper, maybe even by building centers on several planets where people can come to meet and share whatever they have with others. It was a noble plan, nobody could say the opposite, but it wasn't an easy one to accomplish. One of the many problems that made this task being a difficult one was the Genii. Once a great race that had become a militaristic regime from the need to fight the Wraith. It didn't matter how they became what they were now, the important thing was that they were strongly opposing any race that could prove to be a threat to them, and the Terrans were their greatest threat. The Terrans knew the Genii stood no chance of winning, that was easily understandable if somebody looked at what the Genii could bring to the fight and what the Terrans could, but that didn't mean the Genii were not going to try anyway.

As the team walked on the narrow path leading them to the small village, they all heard a slight rustling sound in the woods. As they waited to hear more, another cracking of an old branch somewhere on the ground made them stop in their tracks, immediately on high alert. Somebody was near. As they began to slowly move while searching for any threat, they heard more rustling, this time coming from the opposite side. By now, the team was more than certain this wasn't some simple forest dweller like a raccoon or anything else so benevolent. They'd also realized there was a lot more than just one of them sneaking through the woods.

"Captain, I have the clear feeling we are being surrounded," one of the team members stated flatly.

The captain had to agree. Somebody _was_ trying to surround them and since this wasn't the first time an SGA team had been ambushed recently, he knew this probably wasn't going to be anything good. The captain also knew the worst thing to do when somebody is trying to surround you with what was probably going to be overwhelming force was to remain in one place, especially if there was no cover anywhere in sight, "I don't like our position. Let's move, and fast."

The team increased their pace toward the village, knowing there at least they might find some cover. It was also much closer than the three miles distant gate in the opposite direction. As the small group of Terrans moved further down the narrow path, the captain heard and at the same time felt bullets hitting the back of his armor. This made him realize that whoever these people were, they were not here to capture them, but to kill them in cold blood. Inevitably his thoughts went to the other two teams that had disappeared recently without a trace. The chances were they had been ambushed by the same people, and also the chances were the other teams were now dead. The Captain switched his TR-1 rifle to full-auto, quickly turning and kneeling on one knee before unleashing a storm of bullets, emptying his entire magazine in the general direction from where he thought the bullets had come from. Without even looking if he'd succeeded in hitting somebody, he turned once more and ran toward the rest of his team while at the same time, another member of his team did the same to cover him. The other two members also had their hands full as in front of them four soldiers came out of hiding, immediately opening fire at them. The two team members placed a few precise short bursts each toward the enemy soldiers while relying on their armor to protect them against anything these people were firing back at them with. The armor was more than capable of stopping plasma blasts and the only way these bullets could hurt them was if they'd hit somewhere where there wasn't any armor to stop them.

The team reunited once again a few steps from the four recently downed enemy soldiers.

"These are Genii," one of the team members noted.

"We suspected that already. Now, let's reach the village before they catch up with us. I have the feeling there are a lot more of them around here," the Captain said before moving further down the small pathway.

The team had been able to stop the Genii from surrounding them, something that had greatly increased their chances of survival, but they were not out of the woods yet, both literally and figuratively.

The team had finally reached the village. While looking around to see if there was any threat, they walked into the main street that looked like those usually seen in western movies. Thankfully, there wasn't any threat they could spot and they were glad for that, but there was something else that made them freeze in their tracks. Everywhere around them, dead bodies were lying on the ground and from what they could see, there were at least several dozen villagers dead, all riddled with bullets. As the team passed by a few of the bodies, they could already imagine what had happened here from their wounds. Most of the bodies were hit in their backs, which meant the villagers must have tried to flee from their assailants while they were shooting at them indiscriminately from behind. It was a massacre, one in which the villagers hadn't stood a chance of saving themselves, let alone fight back.

The captain looked at his surroundings, trying to find the best possible cover where they could try to force the Genii to give up their pursuit. To do so, he would need to use every advantage he could find. It was a slim chance the Genii would give up, but he had to try it anyway. He instructed two of his men to go on the rooftops of the two tallest houses he could see, one on the left and the other on the right side of the street. Meanwhile, he and the last remaining team member had started placing C4 charges, burying them in the middle of the street and in front of the same two houses where the other two team members had just gone in. After they'd finished placing the explosives, the remaining two members went further down the street and into the last house that was directly facing the street. The idea was to lure the Genii to that house while the other two members would be able to hit them from both sides.

Everything was set and the captain was expecting the Genii to show up any moment now. As on cue, the first Genii soldiers walked into the same street, slowly moving and checking every corner in search for the four Terrans. More Genii soldiers were immediately behind them and the captain could now count at least two dozen of them. The Genii started moving in two rows, one on each side of the street. Maybe they weren't as good as the Terrans, but they knew better than to rush through the middle of the street and in the open. As they went further, one soldier on each side would enter the next house in line, only for the others to continue their trek. They were checking every house and that was something the captain knew he couldn't allow to go on for much longer. He couldn't allow them to enter the two houses where his men were. As the Genii were approaching the two houses in question, the captain and the other member of his team readied themselves for the fight that was about to begin.

With a scope attached on the top and with the built-in anti-recoil system in the form of an inertial dampener, the TR-1 was the wet dream of every marksman. When switched to single-shot mode, any marksman would be more than capable of hitting a coin from a hundred feet with ease, and the Genii soldiers were much bigger than a coin.

The captain watched through his scope the approaching Genii soldiers, waiting for the right moment to fire. One of the Genii approached the door leading inside the house where one of his men was hiding on the roof. He fired, the bullet hitting the Genii soldier straight in the head. Without waiting, he changed target, immediately finding the right opportunity. Two soldiers were standing one in front of the other. He knew the TR-1 and the new bullets where meant to penetrate armored soldiers with ease, and the Genii soldiers weren't wearing any type of armor. As he fired two quick shots at the first man in line, he saw how the bullets penetrated the man in his chest, only to hit the second man in line as well, both dropping on the ground as sacks of potatoes. The captain glanced at the other side of the street and saw the same was happening with the Genii soldiers on that side of the street. His teammate was doing his job, preventing anyone from entering inside the other house where the second team member was.

As several more of the Genii fell onto the ground, the rest finally understood from where the fire was coming from. They rushed towards them taking cover wherever possible. The problem was that, by doing so, the Genii had found themselves with two Terran soldiers behind them and they had better weapons, better armor and most importantly a much better position on the rooftops of the two tallest houses. The Genii were now the one being surrounded and the Terrans began their relentless fire from all three sides.

The Genii were trapped, unable to find any place that could provide adequate cover from all three sides, something that made a few Genii rush back toward the two Terrans standing on the roofs in an attempt to enter inside the houses. The Captain noticed their movement and he detonated the planted C4, blasting them into the air.

The few Genii that had remained in the open were quickly downed by the SGA team. In less than five minutes the fight was over with more than two dozen Genii dead in the street. At least now, the villagers would not be alone on the ground. At least now, their executioners would keep them company.

The four teammates regrouped in the middle of the street, looking at the Genii on the ground, checking if they were really dead. This had gone better than the captain had expected and he was about to say something in the same spirit when he noticed more soldiers walking into the street, and this time, there was a lot more of them. Without wasting any time, the four members of SGA-7 ran toward the same house where the captain and the other team member had previously taken shelter while bullets were already flying all around them. All of them felt the multiple impacts on their armor, but only one of them felt the real pain of taking a bullet in the leg where there wasn't any armor to protect him. The armor was great, and it had probably saved all of their lives many times over by now, but there was always some spot that wasn't protected, especially since SGA teams never wore the full combat armor. With the help of another teammate, the injured member managed to limp inside the house.

"This is not good captain," one of the team member stated.

"Nice to see you're still able to state the obvious. How's Jerry doing?" the Captain asked while looking at the injured member of his team.

"It's nothing serious, but I wouldn't be planning anything that involves fast running."

The captain was thoughtful. There was at least a hundred Genii coming their way, probably already in the process of surrounding the house, and without the ability to flee, he really didn't know what he could do to make their situation look any better. Thankfully, while he was thinking how screwed up their situation was, his comm. device beeped.

"_SGA-7, this is Atlantis performing scheduled checkup. Please respond._"

The captain was glad. After two teams had gone missing, Atlantis had installed new protocols and one of the changes was Atlantis contacting all off-world teams every hour, "Atlantis, this is SGA-7. We are pinned down by half a company worth of Genii soldiers. We request immediate assistance, I repeat, we request immediate assistance, over," the Captain said into his comm. device.

It took almost thirty second for the reply to come back, "_SGA-7, fast response units have been notified and inbound. ETA ten minutes, over._"

"Acknowledged Atlantis, Barnes out," the Captain replied. He knew that another change in protocol was a rescue team being always on standby. Still, in ten minutes, a lot can happen. He leaned to see through the window what was happening and saw how the Genii were taking cover positions everywhere. He knew there was no chance they could stop so many, especially since they were low on ammo. Still, it looked as if the Genii weren't in any hurry to storm the house, probably because they'd seen the two dozen Genii soldiers lying dead on the ground and knew more would certainly die if they tried. His suspicions had been confirmed when what he thought must be their leader had started talking instead of ordering the attack.

"Terrans! Surrender now and your lives will be spared," the man shouted from outside.

The captain was again thankful providence had given them another way out. If he could only stall for ten minutes, rescue would arrive in time. "Could you please give me your name and rank, so I know who I'm addressing?" The captain yelled back.

"I'm commander Naran of the Genii," the man replied.

"Commander Naran, can you please explain to me what this is all about, because as far as I know our two people are at peace with each other."

"You are incorrect Terran. We are not at peace, and we will never be," Naran shouted back angrily.

The captain knew he now only needed to force the man to start explaining about the righteousness of their actions and the man would probably go on for days. "Why are you doing this Commander, why are you cowardly killing innocent people like these peasants here… and _us_ of course?"

"The Genii are the rightful leaders of this galaxy and not you. You come here and spread like a plague, thinking nobody can stop you. Well, you are wrong, and the peasants that have been killed are mere casualties of war."

"We have a different opinion on what casualties of war are commander and what is indiscriminate killing of innocents by a shot in their back while they are trying to flee. They didn't pose any threat to you, and you could have let them go without killing them."

"They were collaborators with our enemy and as such they had to die."

"Naran, they were mere peasants that didn't do anything wrong, and if you can't understand that, I pity you. The Genii have become a militaristic regime to fight the Wraith and not to spread terror throughout the galaxy. Why don't you try to do what you just did with a Hive full of Wraith instead… or you are too afraid to do it, so you go around the galaxy to find easier targets, like farmers perhaps. What's next Naran, killing women and children, is that it?"

"Your pitiful attempts to stall won't help you Terran. Even you, with your weapons, can't win against a hundred well trained soldiers. Surrender now and your lives will be spared, continue for any longer, and we will storm the house and not one of you will survive."

As the Captain was about to reply, his comm. device beeped again, "_SGA-7, this is rescue team on approach vector to your location. ETA one minute, over."_

"Rescue team, this is Captain Barnes. I'm glad to hear you are so close. I don't think I can stall the Genii for much longer, over."

"_Captain Barnes, this is rescue team. Just sit tight and we will do the rest, over and out."_

The Captain smiled, quickly deciding to pour more salt to the wound, especially now that he knew rescue was close, "We have a few problems with surrendering Naran."

"Oh yeah, and what would they be?"

"First, we don't think you will spare our lives. There are too many people lying around with holes in their backs to believe that. And secondly, you are wrong."

"I'm wrong about what?"

"You are wrong about you saying there is no way out."

That made Naran think hard of what could they possibly do to get out of this. The answer came when he heard the whining sound of half a dozen puddle jumpers coming from the direction of the gate.

The six paddle jumpers reached the village, opening the drone's bays and firing several glowing squids each toward the Genii forces on the ground. The squids flew straight toward them, targeting the biggest concentration of soldiers their internal AI could find. The drones exploded, each tossing several Genii into the air. As the rescue team reached their destination, two of the puddle jumpers landed near the house where SGA-7 was, while the other four landed around the enemy forces in order to have multiple attack points. The two jumpers were already taking fire from the enemy that had regrouped from the initial shock the drones had caused, but the small vessels were more than capable of taking fire from their weapons without sustaining any damage. Now it was time for the ground pounders to finish the job.

As opposed to the '_softies_', the name given to the SGA team members because they had body parts that weren't fully covered by their armor, the ground pounders were marines all wearing the full combat armor.

Ducky was the first to come out from the rear of one of the two puddle jumpers in front of the house. He was always the first to come out and this was for a good reason. Ducky was a nickname he had received for a specific reason and it had nothing to do with the ugly bird. The man firmly believed that the TR-1 rifle was for pussies, hence his weapon of choice was the newly designed prototype machine gun, the weapon responsible for the nickname he had received because, when being fired, everybody else would _duck_ immediately or suffer the consequences. As he exited the rear of the puddle jumper and walked around it in order to face the enemy, he had already prepared several grenades for what was to follow. Once he saw the Genii soldiers, he tossed the grenades one after the other, almost in a Rambo style, immediately taking the dangling weapon into his hands and starting his relentless fire. For this specific occasion, since there was no armored opponent he would have to face, Ducky had opted for the Hollow Point (HP) version of the 10mm bullet to maximize damage instead of the usual Armor Piercing (AP) variant that maximized penetration.

A stream of bullets erupted from the weapon, cutting down everything in their path. Windows, doors, walls and of course Genii soldiers were the unfortunate targets of the fired bullets that indiscriminately shred everything in their path. Ducky would only stop firing after the 200 hundred bullets massive magazine was empty and only until he could insert a fresh one. Soon the other twenty three ground pounders joined the fight, adding more grenades and more streams of bullets to the fray. The Genii were surrounded from all sides, firing from their weapons at the new assailants, but their weapons were incapable of harming anyone. The full armor was more than capable of stopping their bullets and the once hundred men strong force was quickly becoming a dwindling bunch of scared and scattered soldiers, many of whom already trying to flee the onslaught, but there was nowhere to run. Even if some of them succeeded in escaping the village, there was nowhere they could go since the Terrans had already secured the gate, and one of the Auroras was on its way to the planet.

Not having any other option, a few soldiers fled toward the forest while the rest surrendered to the overwhelming force they were facing. It would take maybe half an hour longer to catch and secure every Genii soldier, but the battle was clearly over even now.

The four 'softies' exited from the house and walked toward the captured Genii soldiers and their commander. It was amazing how commanders always survive, and the Terrans thought it must be something in their training the deciding factor for that fact. Probably, while soldiers learn how to shoot, the Genii officers learn how to duck.

"Commander Naran, I've told you there was a way out. At least for us," Captain Barnes said to the tied man in front of him.

Naran definitely didn't like how things had turned out, but the man's arrogance had no limits, "You have accomplished nothing. The Genii will win this war and there is nothing you can do to change that."

"I'm curious Mr. Naran, how did you come to such a conclusion? I mean, we have technological and numerical superiority over you, with spaceships capable of traveling across entire galaxies and the support of the three most powerful races in this entire region of the universe. So, how can you possibly come to the conclusion we have no chance of winning?" the captain asked the man in front of him.

Naran was red with anger, and worst of all he didn't know how to retort back to Barnes. The problem was that the Genii propaganda told him the enemy didn't have numerical superiority, something he believed it would be the deciding factor, but if half of what this man just told him was true, they were in serious trouble.

Before he could say anything the captain continued, "I thought your leader Radim understood that fact, and even if he doesn't like us, I thought he knew you stand no chance of winning against us."

"You are not going to make me talk with this lies. I was trained in interrogation techniques and there's nothing you can do to me that will change that," the man said.

Barnes understood the man wasn't going to say anything of any importance, at least not immediately. Barnes leaned forward, very close to the man's face, "You were trained in _your_ methods of interrogation. I can assure you, after you'll have spent a few days in a very small room, listening to our heavy metal music at 110 decibels nonstop, you _will_ tell us everything we want to hear."

Naran didn't know what heavy metal music was and even less what would listening to it for days in a row do to him, but the man's expression told him it wouldn't be anything good or pleasant. He lowered his eyes in resignation. This was supposed to be an easy mission, with half a company against four Terrans. It ended in more than eighty percent of his men dead, and the rest having been captured. At that point, the Commander wished he was one of those who had died today.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy - Atlantis**

It had taken three days to get what they needed from the Genii prisoners they had captured. Since the prisoners had been categorized as terrorists, the TIA agents had been authorized to use various very effective interrogation methods, and coupled with the many fancy devices they had at their disposal, the Genii had spilled their guts without holding anything back. Naran _had_ found out what three days of loud heavy metal music, preventing you from sleeping or resting, can do to a man's psyche and that if he didn't want to go completely crazy he should start talking. He told them how the Genii military wasn't very happy with how the coward Radim was running things, especially his weak attitude in regard to the Terrans. Although, Naran was now more than certain Radim's actions weren't cowardly at all, but very much realistic in respect to the Terrans. Naran was now also more than certain the Terrans were hundred percent certified lunatics, especially once they had explained to him that people on their planet actually liked to listen heavy metal music, sometimes even going to sleep while listening to it.

Naran, in his rumbling, had also mentioned several other members in their leadership who were in cahoots with him and Kolya was one of them. Something John didn't particularly like.

"So, Kolya is once again a thorn in our backside," John said to the assembled group of people in the conference room.

"Yes, and apparently Radim is clueless on what's happening around him," Weir added, rolling her eyes at the incompetence of the man.

"When is he coming here… and why for that matter? Weren't we supposed to go pay _him_ a visit?" John asked.

"He should be here shortly, and he was the one who wanted to discuss things here, not us," Weir replied.

"Maybe he knows his position is in jeopardy, and he's going to ask for political asylum," John added.

"At this point, anything is possible, but I don't like to speculate too much. So, let's wait for him to come here and then see what he has to say. By the way, did the interrogation give as any clue where our missing teams might be or what happened to them?"

"Their commander didn't know. He wasn't the one who executed the attack in those two occasions," John answered.

"But his mission _was_ to kill the team and not to capture them," Weir asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, his mission was to do just that and to get their hands on our weapons and armor. Apparently, they are very interested in what we have."

"I bet they are," Weir replied pretty annoyed, "Did he give us something we can actually use to our advantage?"

"He did mention one planet where they have a base. We could storm the place and see what we find."

"I'm inclined to agree, but first we'll have to hear what our esteemed Mr. Radim has to say."

As Weir mentioned Radim's name, the gate on the lower level started spinning for the usual seven times before creating a stable wormhole. Radim stepped through the gate and he was immediately escorted to the conference room where Weir and John were awaiting his arrival.

"Thank you for allowing me to come here," Radim said as he took his seat.

"No problem Mr. Radim, although, we were a little surprised by your decision to come here instead of meeting on your planet," Weir replied.

"My reason for coming here is simple. I didn't want to provoke another incident. I couldn't have guaranteed the safety of whoever would have come to my planet," Radim said, shrugging a little. He really didn't like his position right now.

"Can I assume from what you just said that your position in your government is not as strong as it should be?"

"You may, and you'd be right. After I came to power, I have worked hard to make my people living conditions better than what they were. Unfortunately, the military wasn't very happy with what I was doing, especially regarding to the peaceful relations we have managed to install among our two people. Relations I hope this latest actions of some of my people won't change."

"That will depend on how you are going to proceed from this point forward," Weir replied. "We cannot allow anyone to ambush our teams indiscriminately, I hope you can understand that, and we need to find a way to stop whoever is responsible. Now, since we believe you are not involved in these attacks, we are not going to blame you or the Genii people as a whole for what happened, but you must help us make a stop to it. You must help us bring to justice those who are responsible."

Radim nodded in understanding, "Of course, I'll do whatever is in my power to help you. What I can tell you for certain is that the only way we can stop this is if we capture their leader, Kolya. Only then, the others will stop this. You must also know that Kolya is blinded by rage ever since his failed attempt to take Atlantis from you. He won't hear reason, of that I'm certain."

"We already knew he wouldn't, but what we need right now is to find him. Where is he Mr. Radim?" John asked, impatient to find the evil bastard responsible for the disappearance of two of his teams.

Radim sighed. They just asked him something he didn't know, "I don't know. As you know the Genii have bases on dozens of planets, and I have searched all of them in an attempt to find the rogue elements in the Genii military and on neither one of them I have found Kolya or any of his collaborators that I know of."

John quickly gave Radim a tablet displaying seven gate symbols, "this is the address the captured Commander Naran has given us. He says this is the base where they had a meeting discussing their plan of attack."

Radim was plastered, even before looking at the address, "Naran? Commander Naran was on this? I would have never thought he was one of them. If he's on this, it means this conspiracy goes much deeper than only a few rogue elements."

"What about the address?" John repeated the question.

Radim looked at the address with a puzzled look," We don't have a base on that planet, of that I'm certain."

"Well, apparently you do." John stated.

"Mr. Radim, we are planning to raid the planet. Do you have anything against it?"

Radim sighed, '_Do they even have to ask?'_ he thought. "Of course not. I want this whole mess to end, just like you do."

John and Weir looked at each other. They had their next target.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Unknown location**

In a small room, in a bunker deep below ground, a group of Genii was having another meeting. The atmosphere was tense as recent events didn't go as well as they thought they would.

"Do we know what happened?" Kolya asked.

"No, the only thing we know is that our troops haven't returned yet, and I fear they never will," another man replied.

"After our two previous successes, the Terrans must have prepared an ambush," another man added.

"Successes! You call those two operations a success. In both cases we have lost more than five times the number of soldiers they had. I hardly call those being successes," Kolya replied, angrily. "What have you found out from the equipment we have recovered?"

"Not much I'm afraid. Their pistols and rifles both use some kind of advanced security measures preventing anyone except the intended user from using them, probably some kind of DNA check and something else. We tried activating the weapons with one of the dead Terrans hand, but the weapon must somehow understand the man is dead, because it didn't work. What we did find out is that the bullets use different gunpowder than what we use. We tried to use their gunpowder in our own rifles, but our rifle would just break apart. It has a much greater explosive power and our rifles can't withstand it. Our analysis of the gunpowder showed it contains a mix of potassium and some other heavy element we can't recognize as well as similar gunpowder we use. Once the gunpowder ignites, it compresses the potassium and the heavy element together resulting in a much greater explosion."

Kolya didn't care much about the technical stuff. He just wanted to know if they can replicate their technology and use it against them, "What about their rifles. Why their rifles are not breaking down like ours?"

"Their rifles are made of an unknown alloy and we don't know what it is. The only thing we know is that it's incredibly hard and incredibly light. Their rifles also have some other strange components and an energy source. We don't know for what purpose or how they work."

"Great! We have nothing. What about their armor?" Kolya asked frustrated.

"Their armors are made of a similar material as their rifles. Our bullets have no hope of penetrating the laminate material. The other component they use for their joints and other body ports is some strange material that is flexible enough to deform, allowing them to move freely, but when it gets hit with a fast moving object, it temporarily hardens, sometimes capable of even stopping bullets or at least slowing them down considerably, thus minimizing injuries to the wearer. The material is showing inverse physical properties than our science is telling us it should happen."

A material that hardens when hit by bullets or other fast moving objects could be incredibly useful, "Can we replicate at least that material?"

The man shrugged, "Maybe in time, but it will take a lot more to understand the material's composition, and even more to find a way to produce it."

This really wasn't his day, Kolya thought. Not only he had lost almost two hundred good soldiers in the three missions they had, but the spoils of those actions weren't as good as he thought they would be. He hoped they would be able to replicate at least something of what the Terrans used, but apparently, their technology was eons ahead of theirs. It was like giving a car to a Neanderthal and hope he would understand how it works, and Kolya didn't like the fact they were the Neanderthals in the story, "We must move. We have to assume Commander Naran had been captured by the enemy, thus this base is compromised."

"I'll make the necessary preparations to move to our secondary base immediately. What about the other missions we were planning?" another Genii asked.

"We won't be attacking the Terran patrols anymore. It is costing us too many lives to take out so few, and now that they are prepared, it will be even harder."

"So what, we give up?"

"No, we never give up. I have heard about a much better target than just hitting their patrols, something that will really hurt them this time," Kolya said with a vengeful tone of voice. He wanted to make the Terrans pay for what they had done, and he had the right target in mind. "Prepare everything. We are moving immediately." Kolya concluded, leaving the small room where they were.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – The Tower Planet**

Zelenka had been working nonstop for the past week and a half. He had been tasked with unearthing the second city-ship, the Borealis, and the job was far from being easy. The city was in bad shape. Entire sections had collapsed under the weight of the dirt that covered the city in her entirety except for the tallest tower. In the past, when the Terrans didn't have access to advanced technologies from the Alterrans and Asgard, such work would have taken years to complete. Now, things were a little easier. Zelenka had succeeded in changing the basic code of the Asgard beaming system, making it possible to use them to peel off, layer by layer, all the dirt the city was buried under. Tons of dirt had been constantly beamed away by the Aurora in orbit until the city hadn't been completely unearthed, once more visible in all her glory and all the damage that she had sustained. Most of the once proud towers were now in rubble and it will take many months to repair or completely build new once, but for now this wasn't their primary goal. The idea was to unearth the city, repair all primary systems and secure the structural integrity of the lower sections before taking it back to Asura. There, the work would continue until the city is once again fully repaired.

Except from unearthing Borealis, the Terrans had also been working on building the new city for the inhabitants of the planet. The work wasn't as difficult as the job to save the city-ship, but it wasn't easy either. Several Auroras were constantly ferrying construction material that was too big to go through the gate, and there was a lot of material they needed for building the city, especially, the central building the ruling family wanted as their seat of power. The inhabitants of the new city would make an incredible leap from a mediaeval to a modern society. Already several scholars have started teaching them in the few schools that had already been built. It was needed if they wanted to one day become self-sufficient, not needing the Terrans to repair whatever would break in the city.

As the construction work continued at the same pace as it had for the past week and a half, the gate opened and a constant stream of Genii soldiers started pouring out of it. It had been a mistake, and a grave one, that the Terrans had never thought the planet could be the target of the Genii, because if they had, there would have been soldiers guarding the gate against any possible intruder. Since this wasn't the case, the Genii had free access to the planet, something Kolya was very happy to see once he exited through the gate.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy - Altantis**

The Terrans were having another meeting regarding the Genii threat, this time to discuss the futile mission the Terrans just had on the planet where they thought they would find the Genii secret base and the rogue Genii elements. As it had turned out, the base was there, but nobody had been there anymore. They must have understood their secret base had been compromised and had decided it was better to leave.

"The base was empty. They must have realized we have one of theirs and that he would give us the location of the base," John said.

"And we have no other target where they might be. Radim also doesn't know anything," Weir replied.

"No, but I have the feeling we will hear from Kolya very soon. He is not the type to lay low and do nothing," John said.

The moment he ended the sentence, Chuck, the gate operator, rushed inside the conference room. John once again had temped faith. "Sir, we have just received a subspace message. The Genii have attacked the planet where the second city-ship is."

John got up on his feet, not liking what he had just heard, "Do we have a ship in orbit of the planet?"

"No sir, unfortunately all ships are here at the moment taking new construction material," Chuck answered.

"Chuck, call Colonel Pierce to come here immediately and inform the Captain of the closest ship to change course toward the planet," John ordered with apparent urgency in his voice.

Chuck nodded and hurried outside the conference room. It took five more minutes before Pierce showed, "What is it sir?"

"The planet where Borealis is has been attacked by the Genii. I want you to come up with a plan of action to retake control of the gate."

"Sir, if the Genii have fortified their position, we shouldn't be trying to retake the gate by sending troops through it. We could have many casualties this way."

"You want to reach the planet by ship?"

"Yes sir. With a ship, we can be there in an hour and we will have space and air superiority this way. No matter how many soldiers the Genii have to protect the gate, they won't stand a chance that way."

"Alright, take as many men and puddle jumpers as you need and load them on the Daedalus. The moment you are ready, you are authorized to proceed as you see fit," John said, giving Pierce carte blanche to do whatever he deemed necessary to get the job done.

"Yes sir, we'll be ready to leave in 30 minutes," Pierce said, leaving the room immediately after.

"Thirty minutes to leave, and another hour to reach the planet. In an hour and a half a lot can happened John," Weir said, not liking the mess they were in.

"I know, but Pierce is right. If we send people through the gate without knowing what's on the other side, we can sustain heavy loses. As far as we know, the Genii could have placed a wall in front of the gate."

"I know John, I just don't like it."

"I don't like it either, and I'm blaming myself for this."

"Why?"

"I should have placed defenses on that planet, especially in front of the gate."

"You couldn't have known the Genii knew about the planet. By the way, how did they know about the planet?"

"I don't know, but that's going to be one of the first things I'm going to ask Kolya once this is all over."

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – The Tower Planet**

Zelenka had been so happy when he heard he would be the one in charge of the repairs of Borealis. He would finally have the freedom to work on something big without constantly having to listen to Rodney or his constant attempts to micromanage everything, even when it wasn't his project. Now instead, he thought how the constant nagging of his friend wasn't so bad after all. Of course now he was tied to a chair, with a dozen Genii soldiers pointing their weapons at him.

"Doctor Zelenka, how much time do you need to make this city fly again?" Kolya asked.

Zelenka blinked twice, "Two months."

"Doctor Zelenka, your people had fooled me on Atlantis when Doctor Rodney assured me there was nothing he could do to save the city, and yet once I left, he managed to save it in mere minutes anyway. This time I won't fall for it. How much time Doctor Zelenka, and this time I want the truth," Kolya said angrily.

"Three months."

"You said earlier it would take two months?"

"Yes… well, I think I can make it in two months, but our more realistic calculations are saying it will take three."

"Enough! If you don't start telling me the truth, I'm going to start killing you friends," Kolya threatened.

"You can threaten me all you want, it won't change the fact that this city is in bad shape and it will take at least two more months to make her space worthy. Didn't you see how the city looks like while you were coming here?"

Kolya had to admit. While coming here, he had a nice panoramic view of the entire city and it didn't look anything like Atlantis, and supposedly these two cities were twins, identical in every aspect. Most of the towers were missing and while coming here he had to watch if he didn't want to fall in any of the many holes the city was filled with, but the intel he had gained talked about the Terrans being able to finish the repairs in days and not in months. "How were you then supposed to finish the city in days?"

Zelenka blinked twice again, "We were never supposed to finish the city in such a short time. You can check our schedule if you want. You'll see we have several more months of work scheduled before taking the city into space."

Kolya didn't know what to believe. Schedules can be falsified and he didn't know enough of how their systems worked to be sure this wasn't another of their deceptions, "Enough of this! Bring me one of the prisoners." Kolya yelled at one of his men.

The man complied, leaving and returning shortly after with another Terran scientist. Kolya pointed a gun at the man, "Doctor Zelenka, you will tell me the truth or this man is going to die right now!"

Zelenka quickly realized that the _truth_ wouldn't work here, "Alright, alright, I can fix the star drive in a day, but that doesn't change anything."

"Explain."

"Borealis doesn't have any ZPMs, and you need at least two to take the city off the planet, especially from this one that has a slightly higher gravity."

"And where are these ZPMs as you call them?"

"Atlantis."

This wasn't good and Kolya knew it. He knew the Terrans would, sooner or later, try to storm through the gate and the idea was to maybe hold this position for one or two days tops and leave with the city. He had never planned any other way to leave the planet. No, he had to solve this situation now or everything would be lost.

As Kolya wanted to ask a few more questions, his radio cracked and a voice came through, _"Commander Kolya, we are under attack! I repeat, the gate is under attack by Terran forces…" _the man said before a large explosion was heard over the radio and then, nothing.

"Commander Salas, what's you status!" Kolya asked, but there was no reply. "Salas respond!"

There was no response from Salas and that was making Kolya incredibly frustrated. How did the Terrans manage to come through the gate after all the precautions he had taken to make it secure. They had placed landmines in front of it and there was a full company worth of man ready to stop anyone from coming through. Even the Terrans and their gizmos could not have possibly breached such defenses, at least not so soon.

Kolya turned toward Radek, "How did your people breach through the gate?"

Radek was about to reply something like '_we have ships you moron!', _but then he thought how it would be stupid of him to give the enemy any information at all, "I don't know. I'm a scientist, not a soldier."

In the meantime, the battle at the gate was in full swing. Several F-302b had flown over the gate releasing their explosive cargo at the unfortunate Genii soldiers who were only capable of watching the flying crafts and do nothing else. The 'b' variant of the F-302 was almost identical to his predecessor except for the additional bombs that had been added in order to use the craft as a bomber instead of a fighter. You never know when you'd need to drop a few bombs on somebody.

As the flight of F-302b performed their last run over the Genii soldiers, releasing their destructive cargo, six cloaked puddle jumpers touched ground around the engagement area. Twenty four marines exited the jumpers, readying themselves to take out the enemy. With the precision of the TR-1, there was no need for snipers since the weapon's precision and firepower were enough to hit anything in a 1000 meters radius and in this case the engagement area was much smaller. From all sides, the soldiers took aim, everyone taking his own target. As one, the twenty four soldiers started shooting at the disorganized Genii who have survived the bombardment. Genii after Genii fell on the ground without even knowing from where the bullets were coming from. As the number of Genii soldiers started to thin out, Pierce's men took a more aggressive approach, leaving their hidings and running toward the gate while shooting at everything that moved. Again, the Genii tried to fire back, but it was all for nothing. The Terran Combat Armor was more than capable of stopping the enemy fire.

Soon, the fire stopped with only a dozen Genii having survived the blitzkrieg engagement and only because they'd decided to surrender. The gate was theirs and they now only needed to disarm the landmines before contacting Atlantis.

It had taken another fifteen minutes, but the soldiers on the ground were more than certain all landmines had been removed. The next minute, the gate opened and a stream of Army troops started pouring out as well as Sheppard.

Sheppard walked to speak with Pierce, "Good job Pierce. No losses on our side, I'm impressed."

"Sir, can someone please explain to me what the Genii are trying to pull here?"

"Well, when somebody explains the same thing to me, you can be sure you'll be the next to know, but for now, we are both clueless."

"I don't get it sir, they've just trapped themselves on the planet with no way of escaping."

Sheppard shrugged not knowing what to say when he heard a faint sound coming from the ground only a few feet from him. He turned, seeing a Genii radio being almost completely buried, but apparently still functional. He picked the device, listening intently to the voice coming through it.

"_Salas! What is happening down there?_" a faint voice Shepard immediately recognized as belonging to Kolya was heard.

"I'm sorry, Salas is indisposed at the moment," Sheppard replied while looking at the dead body of what he thought had probably been Salas.

"_Sheppard?_" the reply came after a moment of pause.

"Yes Kolya, it's Sheppard."

"_Where is Salas?"_

"He didn't make it."

"_You will pay for this Sheppard."_

"Kolya, a few of us here were wondering, what the hell are you trying to accomplish by attacking this planet?"

A long pause followed, probably while Kolya thought what to say, _"If you want your friends here to stay alive, I want two ZPMs delivered to me, and I want you Sheppard to deliver them… alone."_

John was puzzled by Kolya's request, not understanding what he could possibly do with two ZPMs, "Kolya, what the hell do you need two ZPMs for?"

"_You bring me two ZPMs and I'll give you the hostages."_

Sheppard thought about it before smiling, "Alright, but I need at least an hour to get approval and bring them here, and if I find that even one of my people have been hurt in the meantime, the deal is off."

"_No one will be harmed. That is, if you're not late."_

The connection closed and Sheppard immediately noticed the baffled expression on Pierce's face, "What?"

"Sir, you are really considering giving Kolya two ZPMs? To what end?"

"First of all, yes I'm going to give him two ZPMs, but he didn't ask me if he wants them charged or not. Second, I thought about the reason he would want the two ZPMs and then I remembered how you said how he has trapped himself on the planet without any way to escape… except one. The only thing that comes to mind is that he wants to use the ZPMs to power the city and fly it away."

"But the city can't fly, not for a few more months at least."

"That's true, but I have the clear impression he doesn't know that. I believe he came here with the idea to steal the city from us."

"So, what's the plan?"

"Kolya thinks he holds all the cards and we are going to show him how wrong he is," John answered already planning ahead. "Our first priority is to save our people and that's where you come in. While I'm making the drop, you'll be tasked with saving the hostages."

"Alright, I'll get my teams ready."

John nodded and Pierce walked away to prepare for the mission to come. John went to Atlantis to pick up two empty ZPMs he was going to give to Kolya. It didn't take long to explain to Weir the situation and get approval from her. He gated back only fifteen minutes later to finish discussing the mission with Pierce. Everything was set, the only thing to do was to contact Kolya and set up the meeting.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – The Tower**

John walked inside the lowest level of the Tower, for the first time wearing the full armor. He didn't like it, he felt uncomfortable with all that metal on him, but he knew he needed protection. Kolya most certainly didn't ask for him specifically to come just because of their long term friendship. He knew Kolya would want to enact revenge upon him for what he had done to him more than three years ago. As suspected, the moment he entered the tower he noticed the dozen Genii soldiers waiting for him.

"Stop right there!" one of the soldiers yelled at him.

John stopped as he was told and waited. The soldier looked at him, checking if he had any weapons on him. Satisfied with what he saw, he radioed to Kolya that John was clear.

The next moment Kolya walked down the stairs to meet his archenemy. "Colonel Sheppard, we finally meet again."

"Well Kolya, to tell you the truth, I would have preferred if we haven't met again, not for a long time at least, but apparently you didn't get the message the last time, so here we are."

"And what message would that be?" Kolya replied, still thinking he was the one holding all the cards.

"That if you mess with us you'll get kicked," John answered flatly.

"As far as I know, I'm the one with the hostages."

"Yeah, I know, just like the last time. And even then, you got kicked."

"Once I have the city, things will be a little different in this galaxy."

"Kolya, you always make the same mistake. You always think you'll get what you want."

"Enough talking. Let's finish this. Give me the ZPMs."

John smiled, giving the briefcase containing the empty ZPMs to Kolya. "Here, take them."

Kolya on the other hand, noticed John's smile and he didn't like it. All this conversation was going too easy. "Whatever you are planning Sheppard, it's not going to work. Remember, I still have the hostages."

"What hostages?" John replied with a grin on his face. He had just received word over his comm. that everything was set.

Kolya stopped in his track. This didn't sound good. While he scrutinized John's face through his helmet, trying to understand why he was so calm, his radio chirped, "_Commander Kolya, the hostages are disappearing into thin air!_"

Kolya felt real fear for the first time. Something was going on he didn't understand. He was about to order his man to shoot, when he saw them vanishing in a bright light, "What! What's happening?"

"Well, that's simple. You see, I needed that hour for my men to place beacons around the tower, so our ship in orbit can detect human signatures more precisely. Once my men accomplished their task, the ship in orbit was capable of distinguishing hostages from your troops and teleport them to safety. After that, the ship had started to beam your people directly into the brig, as you have just witnessed. And by the way, the city _can't fly_, so can you please tell me how you got the brilliant idea to try to steal a city that won't work for at least two more months?"

Kolya was enraged, but he also knew he was screwed. Without thinking, he raised his previously holstered pistol, aiming at John. John saw what Kolya was doing. He rushed toward the man while he fired the first shot. The bullet bounced of the Colonel's armor harmlessly, only for two more bullets to do the same. John charged at Kolya, punching the man straight in the face with his reinforced glove. The punch hit Kolya straight in the nose breaking it on contact. Kolya spiraled on the ground in pain, but the man wasn't about to give up so easily. He got back on his feet, swinging back at John and hitting him in the helmet. Pain surged through the arrogant man's hand as he had just found out how painful it can be to hit something so hard as a combat helmet. John smiled, kicking the man in the stomach before delivering another punch to his head. Kolya dropped onto the hard floor, griping his stomach in pain.

John approached the man on the floor, grabbing him by his collar with his left hand and starting to punch him hard in the head repeatedly with the other, "I told you next time we see each other it wasn't going to be very pleasant for you!"

John stopped, seeing Kolya was barely conscious and his bloody face was looking as if he had just gone through a meat grinder. "Aaaah, you are not worth it!" John yelled, dropping the man to the floor.

"Why won't you kill me?" the man on the floor whispered.

"I told you, you're not worth it, and maybe because death is a too simple punishment for you. You'll spend the rest of your life in a dark cell so you'll have time to think how stupid you are. For god sake, didn't you get the memo in this four years we are only trying to help the humans in this galaxy!"

Kolya chuckled, answering with a righteous voice, "You are not here to help us. You are here to take what we have."

"You are an idiot, you know that! Can you please explain to me why we would waste four years helping you if we just wanted to rob you? If what you are saying was true, we could have dropped nuclear bombs ten thousand times more powerful than what you have and be done with it. Then we would only have to wait for the Wraith to starve, since there would be no humans in this galaxy anymore, and we'd be done with it. Not to mention the fact that I don't see what you have that is even worth robbing. We already have Atlantis, the only piece of technology of any value, so what else would we be so eager to steal from you?"

Kolya thought about it, and he had to admit, there was some logic in what Sheppard was telling him, but his pride and his inability to accept he might be wrong were too strong, "You will never convince me you are here just to help us. Everybody has an agenda."

John sighed, "You're right, there is no point in trying to convince a jackass like you of anything. Instead, you'll spend the rest of your life in prison, and maybe after ten years I'll show you what we have accomplished here and then you'll realize what a moron you have been all this time." John concluded, quickly informing the Daedalus there was another man they needed to beam in the brig. He really didn't want to discuss anything with this man anymore.

Their mission was coming to a conclusion, with most of the Genii having been beamed to the brig and disarmed. The hostages, both the inhabitants of the planet and the Terran scientists that had worked on the planet had been saved, at least those fortunate enough to not having been killed by the Genii before the Terrans had arrived on the planet. There weren't many, but apparently the Genii soldiers didn't think of them as noncombatants and hadn't felt any moral hindrance while killing them. All those were going to be crimes the Genii on the planet will be charged with, probably spending the rest of their lives in prison.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Genii Planet**

A soldier walked into the room where Radim was sitting behind his desk. Radim noticed the woman entering and stopping in front of him without saying anything, "What is it?"

"The plan has worked. All rogue elements were on the planet where they have been killed or captured by the Terrans."

Radim smiled, "This is great news. Finally we are free from them."

"We are. It was very fortunate you have received intel of what the Terrans were doing on that planet."

"Yes it was, and Kolya moved into our trap the moment we leaked the information. He couldn't have resisted an opportunity to capture a flying city of the Ancestors even if he tried."

"And the misinformation that the city was about to take off in less than a day made him rush before he could have checked if the intel was legit. This couldn't have gone better or perhaps if he had died on the planet would have been."

"He didn't die?"

"No, he's been captured by the Terran. He and the rest of the captured Genii will be charged with crimes against humanity. The Terrans said they will spend the rest of their lives in prison."

"Hmm, it would have been better if Kolya died on the planet, but a life in prison suits us as well. The important thing is, we don't have to worry about him anymore."

"What about the Terrans. Are they as strong as you say they are?"

"I'm afraid so. Any attempt against them would fail miserably, and I fear they are getting even stronger. I think even the Wraith are starting to realize that fact."

Radim and Sora remained in silence, both thinking how, apparently, the most they could hope for was for the Terrans to really be here to help, just as they said they were.

* * *

******Thanks for reading my story. **Please take a few moments and leave a review. 


	13. Chapter 13: War Part One

**Author's notes: Here comes the 13th Chapter of this story. I think this is also the best written chapter as of yet, but you'll have to be the judge of that. The chapter is pretty long too. I swear it wasn't intentional, i just didn't know how to stop typing.**

**Psychotic-Lunatic: After having spent some time thinking about it as well as having discussed it with others i came to the conclusion that SGU doesn't fit into my story. I just don't know where SGU leads. Still, i have in mind the characters in the series and I am planning to use them in the next book.**

**trekki859: while you say that I'm underestimating the production capabilities of the Terrans since after disclosure, I am not of that opinion, expecially since you are at chapter 4 which is somewhere around a months after Terrania was finished. The problem is that no matter how much support the Terrans get from Earth, resources are still scarce since everything must be mined on other planets. If you put that for a ship like the Daedalus you need roughly 400,000 metric tons of trinium and naquadah, i think the production speed can't be much faster than that. Thanks for the review and if you read further you'll see that the Terrans are growing at a steady pace.**

**Senrab Nomis: Borealis will be finished somewhere in the second book and she will have a specific task to complete.**

**Thanks for the reviews and enjoy the next chapter**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Alpha Site**

War; war never ends. From the beginning of human history, people had always found reasons to kill each other. Sometimes a ruler's boredom was reason enough to start a war or sometime he would find the neighboring ruler having something he wanted that he didn't have and again, a war would start. All those motives where common, but the motive that pushed most people to wage war was and will always be… power.

Humans have always liked power. They would cherish it and never have enough of it. It didn't matter if they had a good and cozy life, they would always want more. They would see others having more than they had and they would want to increase theirs. Conflicts would inevitably start and pass, only for new once to begin the perpetual cycle of death and destruction. It wasn't strange that the Middle Ages, also referred to as the Dark Ages, lasted as long as they did. The darkest part was that the people who followed their ruler were the one who would pay the ultimate price, most of the time because of a misguided sense of loyalty toward their beloved kings or because they knew they would lose their heads if they didn't.

The worst wars in human history were those based on people's beliefs. When people's unshakable faith in a higher power would clash against someone else's different faith, wars were inevitable. Wars that would cost too many lives and last for so long that people would barely remember when or why they started them, if they ever knew that in the beginning.

The Ori weren't any different, which meant humans weren't the only race that solved their problems with violence. On the contrary, it looked as if most races in the universe solved their problems with violence, with only a few enlightened enough to understand that wars should be fought only as a last resort, also understanding that always and inevitably both sides in a conflict were the losing ones. There was no person who could say that his life was better after the war ended, even if his side was the one that won. At least, that was what people who lost somebody in the war would most certainly say.

As said, the Ori weren't different. They wanted power and they were prepared to do whatever it was necessary to gain it, especially since the ones who were paying the ultimate price weren't them. Their followers and now even a good portion of the Jaffa were the ones who would go into battle, only to die because of a lie. The humans in the Ori galaxy would die because the Ori promised them ascension and the Jaffa would die because their great leader Gerak simply told them to die for the cause. The cause was a great and strong Jaffa Nation that would rule the galaxy as the Jaffa were always meant to do. That misguided goal was the one that was pushing so many to side with Gerak. After all, Jaffa were not that different from humans, as they as well wanted more power, no matter the cost.

The humans from Earth had known for a long time the Ori were coming and even if they hadn't, the Terrans knew it was only a matter of time for some other threat to propose itself. This is the reason why the Terrans knew they must be prepared and that others should be ready as well.

Colonel Anderson watched how another group of wannabe soldiers was making fools of themselves. It was pathetic to even watch what they were doing, or better yet, watching what they were _trying _to do because they were clearly not succeeding. The Alpha Site had become the main training camp for the Terrans as it was the perfect place to have exercises without having to worry about civilians or the limited amount of space on Terrania. The location was perfect, the training officer was an experienced Colonel with decades of experience acquired while fighting in Iraq and on Dakara against Baal's forces and yet, the wannabe soldiers looked like idiots who didn't know from which side to hold their rifles. How difficult could it be to just run west and shoot at any obstacle they'd placed on the five miles long course? How in the hell could happened for dozens of those soldiers to end up running north, south or even back east, completely lost in the woods. The only thing they had to do was to have the sun behind them at all times and yet, somehow, some had managed to return to camp, oblivious off how they got there. And that wasn't even the worst part. The forest had been filled with fake targets, some representing enemies while others friendlies. How in the hell those people managed to shoot more friendlies than enemies was beyond Col. Anderson's understanding. The puppet in the shape of an Asgard was hit so many times that he hoped the Asgard would never decide to come here for a visit. Apparently, these people didn't understand him when he explained who the Asgard were and the little fact that they were friends. Thankfully, they were using training rifles because if they used live ammunition, many teammates would have ended up dead or in the hospital long before ending their basic training program as it apparently wasn't uncommon to be shot by your own team members.

When Jack told him they'd made a deal with the Pangarans and Langarans to train their people in modern warfare, he thought his job would of course be difficult, but he didn't think it would be _that_ difficult. After finding out the Ori were coming, the Council understood they would need to train their allies as much as possible since there was a great chance they would have to fight side by side when the Ori decide to attack in forces, and the idea of having to babysit the Pangaran or Langaran soldiers during war wasn't an option. So the council had decided they would need to train a small group of officers and enlisted so they could pass that knowledge further down the line on their respective planets. The idea of these people becoming sergeants, lieutenants, captains or even colonels, who would have the job to teach others how to fight, made Anderson's shiver. Then he would remember that this was the case with all new recruits, also remembering that the last group, after months of drilling, did after all show some progress and skill. Especially it was true with the Langarans who were much quicker learner than the Pangarans could ever be and they also didn't complain so much all the time. Anderson knew there was a difference between the two races, with the Langarans already knowing a little about modern warfare and also having fought on their own planet among themselves, while the Pangarans were still at a Napoleonic stile of waging war and were very much a pacifistic race. He didn't mind their inexperience and the longer period of time they needed to understand what exactly modern warfare was all about, but their arrogance and unwillingness to change was really pissing him off.

Except for preparing these people to fight the Ori, there was also another reason why the Council pushed for this program. The Pangarans and the Langarans displayed great interest in Earth's weapons and it was too great of an opportunity to get rid of old equipment to pass it on. The Langarans were in a much better bargaining position since they had something the Terrans were very interested in. Naquadria was the bargaining chip that gave the Langarans leverage. The Pangarans on the other didn't have Naquadria to bargain with, but the Terrans found out Panagara had quite a large deposit of Trinium and the Terrans were able to acquire the rights to mine the deposits in exchange for weapons and ammunition.

Of course, the Terrans didn't want to sell them the latest in rifles, ammunition and even less their tanks and aircrafts, and even if they wanted to, the Pangarans and Langarans would never have the required knowledge and infrastructure to maintain such advanced equipment. So they came to an understanding to sell them twenty years old equipment Earth countries would otherwise have scrapped as old metal. The only problem was that the various countries on Earth had to spend time dusting off the old equipment before they could even sell it, but it was just what both sides needed since getting the latest tank like the M1A3 Abrams was too expensive and it also contained components neither the Pangarans nor the Lanagarans knew how to maintain. The Americans were selling them the old M60 main battle tanks, the Russians the T-64 or the T-72 and the Germans their early version of the Leopard 2. The Russians made an incredibly lucrative deal with their old MIG-21 and the earlier versions of MIG-29 at a much cheaper price than other countries. Many companies which were specialized in the production of military equipment were having a field day with orders worth billions. Many of these companies would even try to get the old hardware from countries they have sold them to a long time ago, who had them crammed in some hangar accumulating dust. They would then repair them before shipping them to another planet.

All in all the Langarans and the Pangarans were gaining hardware decades ahead of what they had for something they didn't use and Earth was happy to provide them with their old hardware they didn't know what to do with. It was strange to have both sides giving up things they didn't need and yet everybody being happy with what they would receive. The only problem was that somebody needed to teach those people on how to fly the various airplanes they were getting and it wasn't an easy task. The Pangarans knew only about balloons and the Lanagrans didn't have anything like a jet fighter in their arsenal before.

Of course Earth wouldn't receive any of the Naquadah and Trinium as those were for the Terrans, but they would in turn compensate them in other ways, in part by subtracting the amount of financing those countries would have to give them, or by giving them other precious materials instead. This was after all the final idea, so that the countries would get new tech and precious materials without having to pay the Terrans one dime for it, and they were already nearing that goal.

Colonel Anderson's small comm. device beeped informing him somebody was calling him. He clicked the small button, establishing the connection. It was the Alpha Site's Command Center informing him that, once more, his expertise was needed on the fields. Apparently, they were going to war. He packed everything he had with him and left the training camp.

* * *

**Alpha Site – Command Center**

Colonel Anderson entered the tactical room where Jack O'Neill, Colonel Pierce and a few other officers he didn't know were already gathered around the large table in the middle of the room, all looking intently at a map displayed on it.

Jack noticed the Colonel's approach to the table, "Colonel Anderson, you are here. Good."

"Sir, I came here as soon as I've received the call," Anderson said.

"We have a mission for you Colonel, a very important one."

"What is it sir?"

"Chulak."

"Chulak? I didn't know Chulak has been attacked."

"It has. It was a surprise for us too, as well as for the FJN. They didn't think Gerak would attack Chulak since the planet holds no strategic value whatsoever. Nevertheless, Gerak might have decided for some reason the planet was important and the Jaffa there are having trouble repelling Gerak's forces."

"Is the planet under siege by ships?" Colonel Anderson asked, wanting to know what would be waiting for him and his men on the planet.

"No, there are no ships in orbit from any side. All ships are busy elsewhere and the only forces there are the Jaffa that came through the gate and that are still coming. We must stop that from continuing."

"So the gate is under enemy control. How are we to come through the gate with their forces waiting on the other side?" Anderson asked.

"Well, that's where Colonel Pierce comes in. His Special Forces unit will reach the planet by ship and engage the Jaffa guarding the gate. Once he takes control of the gate, you are to take a full brigade through and engage the enemy that is currently assaulting their main city on the planet."

"How many enemy combatants are we talking about?"

Jack sighed, "Well, that's the problem. We don't have a good estimate, but we think there are probably more than five thousand of them already engaging the much smaller defense force in the city and we don't have much time before they are overwhelmed. Colonel Pierce is to take the transport waiting in orbit immediately. It will take him a little over five hours to reach Chulak by ship and probably another hour to secure the gate, so you need to be ready to step through the gate in approximately six hours. Can you be ready in that time?" Jack asked Anderson.

"Of course sir, my men and I are always ready to give somebody the bloody nose."

"Good, that's what I wanted to hear. Gentlemen, you have your orders. I want that planet free and clear of any enemy combatants as soon as possible. Is that clear."

"Perfectly clear sir." Anderson replied, immediately straightening up.

"Of course sir, they are already as good as dead. They just don't know it yet." Pierce replied with a grin.

"Good. You are dismissed." Jack concluded.

Pierce and Anderson saluted, leaving the room their separate ways. Of course Anderson told Jack that six hours would be plenty of time to prepare his men. There is no choice in the matter when the equivalent of a five stars General tells you to do it, but he knew too well how six hours is a very short time to prepare an entire brigade off soldiers. He also had to plan what to take with him, since he wouldn't be protecting a location but rather having to provide a fast moving formation capable of engaging the enemy no matter on what terrain. There was the chance they would find the enemy already inside the city, or they could get lucky and hit them from behind while they were still outside the city limits. He also didn't know if he would have to fight the enemy in the open or in some fucking forest, all of this very important before deciding what to bring on the planet. If he chooses to take too many armored units and they'd already entered the city, he would be in a very difficult position. Anderson understood at that moment how screwed up his situation was. He never before had to think about an engagement with so little time to prepare and almost no information on what he would find. He only hoped he would bring the right arsenal to fight a pretty much unknown number of enemy combatants for a pretty much unknown type of terrain.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aboard the Terran Transporter**

Colonel Pierce waited patiently for their arrival on Chulak. He'd always thought how the waiting part was always the hardest, and the five hours of waiting until they reached their target were nerve-wracking. Only fifteen minutes ago he'd received the news they were nearing the target, and he had immediately ordered his men to get onboard the four Raptors that would take them dirt-side, as in on the planet's surface, where the gate was located. The Raptor was the first Terran drop-ship capable of carrying a squad of marines down to the planet. The ship was capable of hovering and it had a minigun and two missile launchers to provide enough offensive capability to scare the leaving shit out of anyone who was foolish enough to try to take it down. The raptor didn't have any shields, but the ship had a tick enough armor to be able to sustain fire from handheld weapons with ease.

The transport ship reached Chulak and Pierce was immediately notified it was time to act. The four raptors exited the large Terran transport ship, turning immediately downward toward the planet's surface. The ride was bumpy since the raptors were trying to reach their target as fast as possible, but the bumpy ride was something Pierce actually liked since in his mind it meant the waiting part was over and the fight had already begun.

* * *

**Chulak – Near the Gate**

The hundred-strong force of Jaffa warriors was watching the gate and the surrounding area for anyone foolish enough to attack them from the forest or by coming through the gate. Several plasma cannons had been placed all around the gate with a few more watching the small ridge that led to the capital city of Chulak. Suddenly, a whining sound was heard, making the Jaffa in front of the gate look around in puzzlement, not knowing what could possibly be making such a strange and noisy sound. They all turned to the east where they were more than certain the sound was coming from and after a few more seconds they noticed four dots flying on a fast approach vector towards them. When the ships came closer, the Jaffa understood who it was and they immediately turned their plasma cannons and staff weapons toward the fast approaching ships. They fired at the flying crafts, but the ships were fast and they had a slightly erratic flight path, making it increasingly difficult to hit them. The four ships suddenly decelerated, at the same time opening fire from their miniguns spitting dozens of bullets per second at the Jaffa on the ground. The miniguns used the same enhanced ammunition the newly developed TSR-1 sniper rifle. The weapon was spitting 10mm bullets at tremendous velocity that were capable of piercing the Jaffa ineffective armor like it was made of paper. The Jaffa hit would drop dead and in some cases they would also be cut in pieces with limbs flying away after being torn from the rest of the body.

The raptors proceeded on their strafe run, dropping smoke grenades while continuing firing from their miniguns even after having passed the Jaffa location. They made a tight turn, coming back to attack the Jaffa on the ground once again. This time the four raptors focused their fire on the Jaffa manning the cannons as the only weapon that could actually harm them. They locked on them and fired their missiles as well as continuing to fire with the miniguns. They hit several cannons, destroying them or at least killing the Jaffa manning them. The Jaffa also continued firing at the four ships were now hovering thirty feet in the air, but it wasn't easy to hit them since the raptors were strafing sideways with incredible agility and speed, constantly changing their direction and there was already enough smoke to make it difficult to even see them clearly. Most of the cannons had already been destroyed and two of the four raptors touched ground while the other two still provided cover. Two full squads of marines spewed out of the two raptors rear even before the raptors touched ground, only for the craft to take off and continue to provide the necessary cover fire in order for the other two raptors to do the same with their own precious cargo. The twenty-four marines already on the ground started firing at the Jaffa while taking cover behind some large boulders nearby. One of the raptors took two hits from one of the few plasma cannons still operational in quick succession, banking left and losing altitude as the ship received heavy damage. The ship crashed on the ground a few dozen meters from the gate. The other three raptors and the, by now, fully deployed marine squads quickly took out the remaining plasma cannons on the ground and the raptors were now safe from anything that could harm them. Most of the Jaffa were backing up, trying to find cover into the woods behind them while the marines and raptors were relentlessly continuing to fire at them. From the initial hundred Jaffa guarding the gate, only three dozen warriors were still able to provide some opposition and most of them were seconds from turning and fleeing the scene.

Pierce tapped his comm. device, "Raptor one, two and four, block their escape route!"

The three raptors turned towards the treeline where the Jaffa were running to, firing several missiles each in quick succession. A large portion of the forest in front of the Jaffa erupted with massive explosions and fires spreading in every direction. The Jaffas were pinned down with no way of escape. They understood that fact as well and decided to drop their weapons and raise their hands in clear sign of surrender. The marines rushed toward the Jaffa who were surrendering, ordering them to lie down on the ground with their hands behind their backs. The marines were also watching if there were more of them hiding somewhere behind some rocks or trees. There weren't any.

Pierce turned toward his men, "Reynolds, Jennings, take your squads and secure the immediate area. I want lookouts on that ridge ASAP."

Two squads moved to secure their position in their immediate vicinity while other marines still continued canvasing the immediate area for any more threats, checking if all of the Jaffa lying on the ground were really dead or just pretending. The fight was over and Pierce decided to walk to the damaged Raptor that crashed near the gate and check on the pilots. He was glad to see the two people in the cockpit were waving at him, clear sign they were at least alive. He then saw one of his men lying on the ground behind a large boulder. The marine had been unlucky enough to take a direct hit in the neck from a staff blast. He must have died instantly, or at least, Pierce hoped he had. Pierce looked around and saw two more of his men were injured. Thankfully, both injuries were only minor and not life threatening. He then saw several other marines with burn marks on their armor plating, realizing the new combat armor had saved many more from certain death.

Reynolds came rushing down the ridge, running toward Pierce, "The area is secure sir."

"Good," Pierce said. "Dial the Alpha Site and let them know we are ready to receive them."

The man turned and ran toward the DHD, only for the gate to open a wormhole a few moments later. The gate disconnected shortly after and a few seconds later it started spinning once again.

Colonel Anderson was the first to step through the moment the gate connected the two planets. He walked toward Pierce while many more soldiers continued pouring out of the gate. They had the 38 minutes window and he wanted as many soldiers through the gate before the gate shut down.

"Colonel Pierce, congratulations on your successful mission."

"Thank you. Is there anything else we can do? I know my mission is over, but we are ready to stay and help."

"There is. I need eyes and ears on the target area."

Pierce nodded in understanding. He tapped his comm. device and the next minute, one of the raptors took of straight upward, "The raptor will stay in low orbit above us and give us a constant feed of the area. Is there anything else?"

Anderson thought for a few moments before answering, "It will take almost an hour before we are ready to roll. I will need the road to the city clear of any enemy patrols and they must not be allowed to inform the Jaffa we are coming, and I don't know anyone better for that kind of mission than you and your men."

"Understood. We'll be ready to start canvasing the area in ten minutes."

"That would be excellent. I can detach you a few squads of rangers if you need them."

"That would be appreciated. It would go much faster."

Another officer reached the two colonels with a tablet in hand, "Sirs, I have a feed from the raptor in orbit above us."

The two colonels looked at the images the raptor was sending and it wasn't looking good. The enemy had already breached inside the city, and the much smaller force defending it had engaged the enemy in the streets. Still, there was also a large contingent of Jaffa still present outside the city limits and that was going to be Anderson's first target. He only hoped they would still be outside when they reach the city in what Anderson thought it would take at least two more hours. Anderson then realized that his decision to bring mostly infantry had been a good choice since inside the city, with many narrow streets, heavy armored units and the artillery would have difficulties accomplishing anything. There were too many civilians and the fight was too close quarter to use them effectively. Instead, Anderson opted to bring the newly developed armored fighting vehicle designed for fast deployment, very similar to the Stryker the US Army uses extensively. The eight-wheeler had his armor made of a lighter variant of the Trininum-Carbon-Naquadah composite material they used for their main battle tank. It had much less Naquadah in it, making it much lighter but still capable of absorbing large amounts of punishment while keeping the soldiers inside safe. It was also fast. It had a Naquadah reactor as its power source and the 1000 horsepower electrical engine was more than enough for the vehicle to reach almost a hundred miles per hour if the terrain would allow it. The vehicle, baptized as the TAFV-1 (Terran Armored Fighting Vehicle) could have an entire squad of soldiers transported to their destination securely and silently since the vehicle used an electrical engine instead of the much noisier combustion engines. Like for the raptors, the TAFV-1 was also thought to be impervious to all handheld weapons the Terrans knew about, and even stronger weapons as the plasma cannon the Jaffa wielded would have a difficult time piercing the strong armor plating. The machine gun on top of the vehicle, controlled internally by the co-driver was also capable of inflicting massive damage since it used the same ammunition as the raptor did.

Anderson and Pierce continued laying down their plan of attack until it was time for Pierce to leave the gate's location to go on his and his men's reconnaissance mission while Anderson remained, trying to solve all the logistical problems that his troops would probably encounter in order to reach the city. The road was treacherous, on many points even difficult to be called a road and he knew there would be many places where they could be ambushed. Still, he trusted Pierce would do a good job of taking care of any patrols being between them and the city. In a little over thirty minutes the relatively small two thousand men brigade, consisting of three battalions, would start their six klicks long trek toward the capital city.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania **

Jack, Klaus and Teal'c were all standing around a table with a tactical display of the Milky Way Galaxy on it, intently discussing the various engagements with the Ori and Gerak's forces they were currently fighting or about to start fighting.

"I got the news from Chulak. The gate has been secured and our troops there are preparing to leave for the city. Unfortunately, it looks like the enemy has already breached inside the city and is now engaging the Jaffa into a close quarter fight," Jack explained to an incredibly worried Teal'c. Seeing Teal'c's expression he continued. "Teal'c, we got this. In less than two hours our troops will engage the enemy and knowing Anderson it will be a short work to dispose of them. You have other more important things to worry about right now and you need to leave us to take care of Chulak."

"You are right O'Neill, I have to think about the task at hand. What is the current situation on P3X-267?" Teal'c asked, focusing his thoughts away from Chulak.

Jack turned to Klaus, letting him know it was his time to start talking. "The TIA's recon ship in the system sent us these images. As you can see there are still two Ha'taks in orbit around the planet, the same as Rak'nor said it was when he left the system. The ship was also able to detect more ships near the system in question, and we think they are preparing an ambush for when you decide to attack."

"How many more ships are near the system?" Teal'c asked.

"As far as we know, there are three more. But there could be more that we haven't spotted yet. There is another TIA ship converging there that will help canvas the area more thoroughly, but there is no guarantee we'll find them all," Klaus answered.

"I am taking at least eight Ha'taks. We must take those shipyards from Gerak before they have completed building the new ships and with such an overwhelming force Gerak doesn't stand a chance of winning."

"Would Gerak's forces flee when they see your fleet?" Jack asked thinking about something.

"If we have an overwhelming force, they most certainly will. It is not an act of a coward to leave if there is no chance of victory," Teal'c explained something about the Jaffa code of conduct.

"That's what I thought, yeah."

Teal'c saw the proverbial hamster turning the wheels in Jack's head, knowing he was planning something bad, "What is it?"

"Well, what would happen if you attack with only three or maybe four Ha'taks with the rest waiting close by?"

Teal'c understood where Jack was going with this, "O'Neill, you want for us to ambush an ambush?"

"Yes! They don't know what we know, so they are going to bring their reinforcements forward, thinking they have the clear advantage. Only then you bring the rest of the fleet and smash them into pieces."

"It could work, but if we are wrong on how many ships the enemy has there, we could end up being the one ambushed and destroyed and we definitely wouldn't have the time to at least destroy the shipyards on the planet's surface," Teal'c explained as their plan was to recapture the planet, but if they couldn't the backup plan consisted in smashing the shipyards rather than letting Gerak have them.

"Well, there is always uncertainty in war and that is why I would really like for one of our Auroras to go with you."

"No, that is not an option. This is our war and if you openly attack Gerak, more Jaffa could side with him as a result."

"Teal'c, we are currently attacking Gerak's forces on Chulak. I think we are already past the, on whose side who's on and who's attacking whom, don't you think?"

"This is different. Your involvement on Chulak will be construed as liberation of a city. There is also the fact that there will be no enemy Jaffa left to speak of it."

"That's true, but I still think we should go on the safe side on this."

As Jack finished his sentence a bright beam transported Liam next to where Jack was standing, "I don't think it matters how the Jaffa perceive the Terrans, not anymore."

'_I swear, this guy knows everything that's happening in the whole galaxy in REAL TIME!'_ Jack thought to himself. "What do you mean?"

"I have reliable intel that an attack on Tollana is imminent," Liam said with urgency in his voice.

"The Ori are preparing to attack Tollana!" Jack said not liking it one bit.

"No, not the Ori. Gerak is taking it upon himself to attack your colony, even though the Ori have forbidden him from openly attacking you," Liam explained.

Jack was plastered by the revelation, only to understand something else the next instant. Jack grinned mischievously, "That's the mistake we've been waiting for. He doesn't know about the defenses on Tollana."

"What defenses?" Teal'c asked.

"We placed hidden cannons on the ground and cloaked weapon platforms in orbit so that if somebody comes there checking, he would not know what kind of defenses we have there. It is always better to let the enemy guessing. Gerak must have sent a cloaked ship to check the place and found out it is an easy target. That's probably why he thinks he doesn't need the Ori for this."

"Yes, and this is also the reason why you don't need to worry about openly engaging Gerak," Liam added.

"On the contrary," Teal'c interjected. "If the Terrans attack Gerak's forces _before _he attacks Tollana, you will give him a reasonable explanation for attacking the planet. Instead, if he attacks Tollana without provocation and even better, if he loses the battle there, many Jaffa will reconsider their allegiance with him. Now more than ever I must attack the planet alone. If Gerak loses on both P3X-267 against the FJN and on Tollana against the Tau'ri, it will clearly show who the winning side is and who the aggressor is."

"There is something else. Gerak must have told the Ori who are Earth's strongest allies in this galaxy. I don't know when exactly, but I know they are planning on taking Langara very soon, as their first step before attacking the Terrans more directly. That is probably why they don't want Gerak to attack you, not yet at least." Liam explained.

"How do you know all this?" Jack had to ask.

"Actually, since Gerak joined the Ori it became much easier to get useful intel. The Jaffa really like to brag about what they're planning to do and Gerak's people are much easier to spy on than the priors or their followers," Liam explained. "No offense Teal'c."

"None taken." It was true. It was almost ritualistic among the Jaffa to brag about past and future conquests. It was something Teal'c would need to change.

"Sweat! I knew Gerak would sooner or later prove to be very useful to us." Jack quipped cheerfully, before continuing with a more serious tone. "Do you have a timetable when the Ori are planning to attack Langara?"

"No, not exactly. The GIA has analyzed the Ori's movements as much as they can and, if their calculations are right, they will be close to the region where Langara is in a month or so."

"So we have a month to come up with a plan to stop who knows how many Ori warships with probably an entire army of followers. I suppose they will try to convert the population since it would be a great achievement if they manage to convert so many."

"That is probably true, but we must take into account that the Ori will probably kill every last one of them if they don't agree to join them and that means we have to stop them from even setting foot on that planet."

"We don't have the necessary firepower to protect the entire planet. We can only protect the largest cities with the cannons and there will be gaps where the Ori can land. We can't stop them from landing everywhere on the planet. The other option is to wait for them with ships and I don't like our odds if they come with all seven warships there."

"Seven? I thought it was five?" Liam asked.

"Yeah, it was, but two more warships just came through the supergate, "Jack said also not liking it.

"When is Carter's plan to block the gate going to happen?" Liam asked.

"Tomorrow. She's already in the Pegasus galaxy."

"Good. We must stop more ships from coming here at all cost, or it will all be for nothing," Liam said.

"I agree. I only hope it will work."

"Carter's plan is sound, and I have confidence it will work," Liam replied confidently.

They all agreed. If they wanted to have at least a chance of stopping the Ori, they needed to stop more ships from coming here.

The discussion continued for another half an hour. In that time they all agreed it would be Teal'c's job to take out Gerak's forces at P3X-267, also concluding it was paramount Gerak's fleet there gets destroyed rather than just having to retreat from the system. If Gerak loses face only days after taking control of the planet and also by losing many ships in the process, it would be a sharp blow to his war machine and an even harder blow to his ego, with the blow to his ego probably being even more important than the rest. A person like Gerak in such an enraged state was just what they needed. He would most certainly recklessly attack Tollana, losing even more ships and most importantly support from his followers.

The Terrans also needed to move fast if they didn't want to lose the opportunity that had just landed into their laps, both on Tollana and by knowing what the Ori next target would be. Liam told Jack that he had been successful in stopping the Senari from coming here and that he would soon be able to take care of the remaining Senari forces that were still roaming the galaxy. He explained how, after they dispose of the remaining Senari ships, his plan was for the Asgard to remain in the Andromeda galaxy to make sure there was no more ship there, while his forces would be transferred here in the Milky Way galaxy to provide additional help. He also explained that he had fully committed the Guardians ground forces and that they wouldn't be alone in providing troops for the defense of Langara, but he also mentioned that he still has very little in terms of ground forces at the moment since he always thought a stronger fleet was more important than foot soldiers. He also explained how that was also going to change in the near future as more and more Edenians were joining the Guardian's Order ground forces.

Jack was certain that Teal'c was still preoccupied with what was going on with Chulak, but he promised him he would let him know the moment he gets more info. The small group departed, with everybody having different jobs they needed to take care of and little time to waste.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Chulak **

The long column of soldiers accompanying the long caravan of TAFVs had spent almost two hours to reach the city under siege by Gerak's forces. On several occasions they had to stop in their tracks when Pierce had signaled there was a Jaffa patrol coming their way and they needed some time to take care of them. Anderson's only thought was how these delays would give the Jaffa even more time to breach the city, albeit it would not save them in the end, as he was more than certain the enemy didn't stand a chance once it was surrounded from multiple sides. Anderson's mission was to eliminate the threat with extreme prejudice, but that didn't mean he wasn't worried about his men and that he wouldn't try to find ways to minimize the inevitable losses he would sustain as much as possible. Once they'd reached the outskirts of the city less than a klick from the enemy, they stopped so that Anderson could go through the last intel one more time and see if there would be any changes before the assault began. As he'd already known, the entire south side of the city was overwhelmed by the enemy and the thousand remaining Jaffa who had protected the city for so long were exhausted and utterly bitten by the much larger enemy forces. After another look at the images the raptor in orbit was sending him, he decided no changes were necessary.

Two battalions started their attack from the southwest, flanking the unaware Jaffas on their left side. It was a blitzkrieg attack with the TAFV rushing toward the newly forming front followed by soldiers on foot. As the TAFV were reaching their target, the light artillery made of M224A1 60mm mortars started firing from one klick behind, throwing High Explosive shells at 20 rounds per minute each. The left flank of Gerak's forces started exploding from the many falling rounds. The TAFVs also didn't wait for any special invitation, firing from their machine guns while also letting soldiers come out from the back and taking cover behind it or behind some boulders or trees nearby. They were also adding their own fire to the midst. The Jaffa quickly realized they have a much bigger problem behind them than what awaited them inside the city, also deciding it would be a good idea to take cover wherever possible.

More Jaffa started coming from the East in an attempt to reinforce their, by now, precarious position on the other side where they were currently undermanned and in an overall losing position. At that point, the newly opened frontline was almost half a mile wide and not even half of the Terran forces had yet reached it. Anderson ordered the mortars to change the targeted area and to try to stop the Jaffa coming from the east, thus stopping or at least slowing down their reinforcements from reaching the frontline. At the same time Anderson ordered for the second part of the assault to begin and the remaining battalion immediately engaged the enemy from the southeast side. The third battalion had two important jobs to accomplish. The first was to keep the Jaffas stretched throughout the entire south side of the city so that they could never regroup all together in order to attack the main formation of the Terran forces, and for two companies from the third battalion to find a way to breach inside the city from the east and meet with the Jaffa resistance inside. As the attack began, two raptors sped above the city. Pierce's job was to find the Jaffa HQ and inform them of recent events and the strategy they were going to employ to win this battle.

Pierce exited the raptor once it touched ground, only to be greeted by a very happy Rak'nor. Rak'nor's luck must have run out some time in the past because the past few weeks had been riddled with one catastrophe after the other. After the losses he had sustained at the hand of the Ori and after his escape from P3X-267 where Gerak had seized control of the three shipyards, he was dispatched to Chulak where he was ordered to prepare as many warriors as possible for the many battles that the Council thought would inevitably come. He hadn't been half through the recruitment when the attack had begun. More than five thousand angry Jaffa had started attacking Chulak for who knows what reason, since, after all, Chulak wasn't a very important target. At least the recruiting went much faster than how it started, as every capable Jaffa started taking staff weapons and informing him he had just joined the army. As the fight had continued raging throughout the city limits, he'd thought how there was even a chance they would be able to repel Gerak forces, but then another two thousand warriors had arrived to fill in for the losses the enemy was receiving, and that was when he knew they would eventually fall. Now, after he'd seen the face of Pierce, he knew they had just received reinforcements. He still didn't know how many, but he knew the Terrans never did things half way so he was more than certain they were here to kick some butts and with enough troops to actually do it.

"You must be Rak'nor," Pierce said as he took the Jaffa's hand in what was the standard Jaffa greeting.

"I am."

"Good. I'm Colonel Pierce, Terran Special Forces. I'm here to make an estimate of your forces that are still able to fight and to coordinate any further engagement in order to free Chulak."

"That is good to hear. The moral of my warriors has dropped considerably in the last few hours and to tell you the truth, I was certain we were as good as dead."

"Far from it. Two thousand Terran soldiers have engaged the enemy from their rear. They have opened two fronts, the main frontline on the southwest and another on the southeast side of the city."

Rak'nor thought about the layout of the city and where those front could be, "If I'm right, your people will have the best chance from the southwest. The terrain there will help and provide adequate cover for your troops."

Pierce smiled, "The commander knows that already. That's why he placed the brunt of our forces there. The other side is only to keep them busy and for securing a corridor from where two companies can breach inside the city and reach us here."

"You are bringing reinforcements inside the city? Isn't that a little risky? If your forces are unable to win against Gerak's forces, your people will be trapped inside the city, the same way as we are."

"That's true, but we don't plan on losing. We _will_ win this battle, I can promise you that."

Rak'nor was happy to see the man had so much confidence. It was something that gave him confidence as well, "Of course, and I apologize. The long fight we have fought for the last few days must have weakened my resolve."

Pierce smiled, "You did a great job here. You've been able to keep them outside the city for two days. If you didn't, we would be having a much more difficult task on our hands." Pierce stopped smiling, realizing it was time to get to business as there wasn't much time and there was still a lot to do before the day was over. "Tell me, where is the best approach for three hundred soldiers to reach us here?"

"Well if you are planning on breaching through the southeast the best way is…"

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – P3X-267 **

Teal'c watched the blue of hyperspace swirling around his ship while traveling to his destination, or yet, better to say, his target. He was impatient. He wanted for the battle to already be over so that he could turn his ship and go to Chulak, but he knew he couldn't do it, not until P3X-267 wasn't once again under FJN control. The planet was important. It had the only shipyards capable of building the new and improved Ha'taks, and they couldn't let Gerak have them. They would rather destroy the shipyards than leave them to that bastard. The funny part was that Gerak hadn't even wanted the upgrades, as they had been made by the Tau'ri, and somebody proud as he was, never takes gifts from his enemy. After he'd split from the FJN he must have realized he would end up in a bad position if the FJN started building a new type of ships, one more powerful than what his forces were currently wielding. Teal'c was also beating himself up for not having anticipated Gerak's move. He should have. He knew Gerak to well, and yet, he'd missed the signs. He had to repair the damage he had caused because of it and then finish Gerak once and for all, as he thought it should have been the case much earlier. Gerak was also a traitor who once more believed in false gods and he did it only to succeed in his vendetta against the Tau'ri and those who followed them.

"We are approaching the coordinates," one of the Jaffa on the bridge informed Teal'c.

Teal'c nodded, happy it was finally time to show Gerak, or whoever was on those ships, what grave mistake they've made when they'd decided to split from the FJN.

The four Ha'tak ships exited hyperspace on a direct course for the two enemy ships in orbit around the planet. As suspected, the two Ha'taks didn't run towards them nor have they backed away. They just stood there, waiting for the four Ha'taks to reach them.

"Master Teal'c, three hyperspace windows are opening on our left side and they are not ours," the same Jaffa as before notified Teal'c.

"As we expected. Engage the enemy in front of us and call the reserve."

The four Ha'taks moved forward toward the two Ha'taks in orbit, not caring for the three new ships that had just entered the fray. They opened fire, the two Ha'taks responding in kind to the insult, but Teal'c's forces had the advantage for now, at least until the three enemy vessels reached weapons range and added their own weight to the fight. Teal'c's ship started shaking more violently as it was now receiving fire from his left side as well as from his front. At that moment, four more hyperspace windows opened behind the three enemy's Ha'taks, immediately opening fire at them.

"Shields at sixty percent, master Teal'c. The enemy is focusing their fire on us."

"Divert reserve power to the shields and continue firing," Teal'c replied calmly.

They did, and the firefight continued. With all ships finally engaged in the battle, the five enemy Ha'taks against the eight of Teal'c's task force were having a difficult time fending off their assailers. Hits were exchanged, only for more to be fired and more to be blocked by the opposing ships' shields. The situation changed when the first of the five enemy vessels' shields collapsed and the barrage of plasma weapons was finally capable of inflicting damage on the ship's hull. The ship's crew fought until the very end when the ship started to break apart, with internal and external explosions completely compromising its structural integrity. The ship exploded in a large fireball of melted metal, leaving only wreckage where once a proud ship had been. The four remaining ships continued firing, albeit no chance of victory remained. One of the ships must have understood how precarious their situation was, because he turned toward an opposing ship, pushing forward at ramming speed. The ship collided with the other, both ships exploding in a gigantic ball of fire as the shields of neither one of them could withstand the tremendous amount of converted kinetic energy such collision created. Another of Gerak's ships changed course toward the shipyards on the planet below. The ship started firing, as most certainly Gerak had the same idea to rather destroy the installations below than letting someone else have them. Teal'c wasn't born yesterday and he had already sent three of the seven remaining ships at his disposal to stop the ship from accomplishing this last act of defiance. While the four remaining ships were keeping the other two enemy ships busy, the three Ha'tak opened fire on the single ship in orbit. It took less than a minute for the ship to explode as his shields could not withstand such an unfair amount of punishment. The fight was over, the other two ships surrounded, the crew demoralized and they could do only one last thing. Flee.

One of the two ships opened a hyperspace window, fleeing the battlefield, but the other couldn't. His hyperdrive had been damaged and the only thing they could do was for the crew to surrender rather than to be destroyed. Not that it would matter. There was no Geneva Convention here to protect prisoners of war and no Jaffa would feel very lenient towards them either. Yet, they would remain alive, at least as long as they would be able to provide some useful information about Gerak's forces the FJN could use.

The battle was over and one of the shipyards below had been completely destroyed while another received severe damage that the FJN would take time to repair. Gerak's forces had been beaten and the planet below would soon be liberated of the small enemy presence still on the surface and the only thing Teal'c had to do now was to go and help free Chulak.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Chulak **

Night had fallen on Chulak and the firefight had quieted down. Gerak's forces didn't want to attack during the night and the Terrans had other ideas that would eventually increase their odds even further. The Terrans needed the time for company Bravo and Charlie from the 3rd battalion to reach Rak'nor in order to provide relieve for the already strained Jaffa resistance inside the city. There was also something else that was as useful in battle as bullets were. Psychological warfare was something new to the Jaffa on the planet and in general, but it wasn't anything new for the Terrans. As night had fallen and the fight had quieted down, the Terrans had started using the few mortars they had to bombard the Jaffa's position, not because they thought they would get lucky and hit somebody, but because they didn't want to give the Jaffa the luxury of sleeping through the night. Most of the enemy combatants had already spent two days on the planet fighting, and they didn't have a camp a few klicks back like the Terrans had where they could take turns and rest in anticipation for the fight that would inevitably come in the morning. The M224 mortars where made to fight light infantry and they had no chance of doing damage to houses or walls behind which the Jaffa were hiding, but they did make a lot of noise when the shells would explode.

The night had also given the Terrans a much easier way to reach Rak'nor, giving them ample time to prepare for tomorrow's fight. When the two companies of soldiers had reached the hastily built Headquarter and nearby camp, they'd immediately noticed how tired the remaining Jaffas were. They tried to provide help to those who had been injured in the previous two days and the two companies had also brought food and medical supplies that the Jaffas there were more than happy to receive. The Jaffas were warriors and when it comes to defending their homes, there is no distinction between male, female, or child, at least if they were more than thirteen years old. The invading force also didn't discriminate when it came to who they'd shoot and who they wouldn't, which turned out to be nobody. Everybody in the city was a target and the number and variety of injured or dead was clearly proving that fact.

The two captains who were leading their respective companies joined Pierce and Rak'nor.

"Oh, it's good to see you were finally able to join us captains," Pierce told the two men the moment he saw them.

"Thank you sir. We didn't encounter any obstacle on the way here. The path you gave us was perfect sir," Captain Walsh barked in a clearly overly professional manner.

"I'm glad to hear that," Pierce replied smiling before continuing in a more serious tone, "As you know, we are scheduled to start our new offensive in a little over one hour from now, the moment the sun comes up. Orders from Colonel Anderson are to take position here and engage the enemy from the north while the 1st and 2nd battalion is going to attack them from southwest and the 3rd battalion, except for you of course, will attack from the southeast. The idea is for us and the 3rd battalion to hold position and hold the enemy at bay while our main force takes the brunt of the attack. This should go on until we manage to squeeze the Jaffa in this section of the city, which is a little over half a square mile." Pierce was also showing the other three men where that specific portion of the city was on the map in front of him.

Rak'nor was nodding. He thought the idea was doable, but there was something else that was troubling him. "That should not be a problem to accomplish, but what you are suggesting will push them in a part of the city which is easily defendable. Why would you give them such an opportunity if you have enough troops to have a decisive victory right where they are standing now?"

"Because if we attack them now, there will be many casualties on our side as well and many enemy warriors will be able to sneak through our line because this is a too large area to cover every possible escape route," Pierce explained.

"That is true, but we will lose even more if we let them enter that part of the city and only then attack them," Rak'nor replied not understanding what kind of strategy was to give the enemy an advantage when they clearly didn't have to.

"Well that's because we are not planning on attacking them there. Instead, we will fortify our position around the area in question."

"And then what?"

"And then we ask them nicely to surrender," Pierce grinned, letting them know it wouldn't be all that nice.

Rak'nor blinked in confusion, "We do what?"

"We ask them to surrender," Pierce said the same thing. Maybe Rak'nor hadn't heard him the first time.

"Why would you do such a thing, and a better question yet is why would they accept?"

"Because they have nowhere to run, that's why."

"But if they surrender, they will look like cowards and they will still be killed," Rak'nor said.

Pierce only than understood there was a difference in their understanding on how war should be fought. "Rak'nor, if they decide to surrender they will be treated as prisoners of war and they won't be harmed."

"What? Why would you let your enemy live?" Rak'nor said angrily.

"Because they surrendered," Pierce answered, playing dumb. He knew he was pissing Rak'nor off, but he couldn't prevent it. He had to make him know Terrans did things a little differently than the Jaffa did.

"This is preposterous! Those Jaffa have killed many in the city and they do not deserve to live."

"You shouldn't judge people so quickly and even less play executioner."

"Why not!"

"Because, if I recall correctly, you were once a loyal servant of a certain Goa'uld and you did very bad things if he told you to do them. Isn't that the truth? And isn't it also true that if we applied the same logic you are applying for those Jaffa, you should be also dead right now?"

"That is a completely different situation than this one!"

"Why is it different? You'd followed orders given by a megalomaniac who wanted to dominate over others and who also pretended to be a god in order to achieve his goal. Is it so different from what those Jaffa are doing now by following Gerak and the false gods, the Ori? Isn't it also true that there could be many Jaffa among them who actually don't believe in what Gerak is doing, but as warriors they are to follow orders? Maybe they are even being threatened so that if they don't comply with those orders they or their families would be killed?"

Rak'nor was thoughtful. It did sound familiar and he had to admit, there was a chance some of those Jaffa were only following orders because somebody was threatening their families, "You are right. I have judged them too quickly, and if in the past the Jaffa judged other Jaffa for what we did in the same way, there would be no Jaffa Nation to speak of, but… there is still one problem."

"Which is?"

"What if they do not accept?"

"Oh trust me, they will," Pierce said with a grin on his face.

The offensive started on sunrise with the brunt of the Terran forces on the southwest attacking first, while the 3rd battalion's job was only to fend off anyone who came their way, but in no circumstances they were to force the engagement. In the meantime, the Jaffa resistance and the two companies from the 3rd battalion retreated behind the designated area on the north where they wanted Gerak's forces to go. The idea was also for the enemy to realize that it was a gift that they were letting them reach that section of the city as it would be much easier to defend than where they were now, but if nothing else, you can always say the Jaffa are really stubborn people. Anderson didn't know if those who weren't retreating were staying behind because they just didn't get the memo stating they had an opening where to retreat, or if the Jaffa commander was leaving a small portion of his men behind so he could reach the designated area safer, but the end result was that on many places all through the frontline, soldiers had to flush out the various groups of Jaffa hiding inside small houses on the city's limits with smoke grenades and… not smoke grenades. The long, tedious and also very dangerous job of canvasing the entire area before the soldiers could go any further, lasted for the better part of the day, thus allowing the Jaffa enough time to retreat to what they believed to be safe heaven where they would make their last stand. In that time, the 3rd battalion also moved forward from the southeast side, while Bravo and Charlie company with the help of the Jaffa resistance were blocking any attempt from Gerak's forces to go any further than what they wanted them to. Slowly, the enemy had been surrounded from all sides and the Terran forces started fortifying their positions.

Anderson was pretty sure the enemy had no chance of escaping, albeit some Jaffa tried to do just that, eventually ending up dead or captured, but since capturing someone was exactly what Anderson needed at the moment, he didn't complain. Anderson needed one of their warriors to go back and deliver a tablet to somebody named Mar'ok, their leader. He needed to establish a video call with him if he wanted to communicate with them. Anderson waited patiently for another half an hour after the Jaffa had run back to his fellow warriors before receiving confirmation of the package having been delivered. The connection was finally established and the display in front of Anderson was displaying a disgruntled Mar'ok holding the tablet with the camera to close to his face.

"Who is this?" Mar'ok asked with a very unpleasant tone of voice.

The arrogance was apparent in the man's voice and Anderson understood that he would need to tread carefully with this man if he wanted to accomplish anything, "Mister Mar'ok I presume, the leader of Gerak's forces on Chulak." Anderson continued. "My name is Colonel Anderson, commander of the Terran Forces here on Chulak."

"What is the meaning of this? Why did you want to talk to me?" Mar'ok asked, again with an arrogant tone of voice.

"I wanted to discuss with you our current predicament, or better to say _your_ current predicament."

Mar'ok's arrogance had no limits, "Our position is strong. Many of you warriors will die if you attack us, I can promise you that."

"Mister Mar'ok, I think it is too soon to start threatening each other. We have many things we need to discuss before it comes to that."

Mar'ok was more and more enraged by this conversation, mostly because Anderson looked so composed and calm the whole time, "I ask you again. What do you want?"

"I want for you and your men to surrender, Mister Mar'ok."

"What?"

"You understood me correctly Mister Mar'ok. I want you to surrender."

Mar'ok laughed at Anderson's word, "Why would I even consider such a thing? We have a strong position here. Why would I surrender and allow _you_ to kill us without putting up a fight?"

"That's because I have no intention of killing you or any of your men if you surrender. We do not kill prisoners of war."

"This is a Tau'ri trick. You will kill us the moment we step outside of here."

"On the contrary Mr. Mar'ok. In many wars the _Tau'ri _had fought on our planet we always threated prisoners with the respect they deserved. If you surrender, you will be transferred to an imprisonment camp where you will be treated fairly and you will stay there for the entire duration of the war. After the war is over you will be free to go wherever you want."

"You are a fool if you think we will surrender now that we have a strong and defendable position. We have no reason to surrender."

Anderson smiled mischievously to the man. He knew he needed something more to show him how precarious his situation was, "Mister Marok, your situation is not as good as you might think it is. First of all, you must have already understood you are surrounded with no way of escaping and if we want, we can keep it that way until you and your men starve to death, but this would probably take too long and I have no intention of staying here for the next few weeks. I have something to show you that I think will give you a pretty good idea of how precarious your situation is."

Anderson pushed a few buttons and his monitor, as well as the tablet Marok had, started playing a video file. The video file was from the US military archive showing one of the many times the US military used their most destructive bomb ever made that wasn't a nuclear one. The video showed a small airplane dropping the bomb above a forest, followed by a devastating explosion in which the air was first sucked up in the point where the bomb was, only for the explosion to be released with tremendous devastation for the surrounding area. Such bombs could easily obliterate a region of many square miles and the video showed just that.

The video ended and the monitor showed once again Marok's face, only now he didn't look as confident and arrogant as he'd looked before. After seeing the devastation of the bomb the Terrans clearly had at their disposal, he started to think about how the proposal Anderson had given him wasn't such a bad idea, as one thing was to die in battle and another was being obliterated by a bomb. Nevertheless, surrender would put him as a coward and with him Gerak as well and he couldn't let that happened. Instead of replying to Anderson, he simply terminated the connection.

Anderson didn't like how the conversation ended and he liked even less the idea to actually having to use the bomb, but his orders were clear. He needed to free Chulak as soon as possible and, if necessary, with extreme prejudice. He'd decided to give Marok another half an hour to think as there was still a chance, albeit small, the man could change his mind.

As it turned out, the man didn't change his mind, deciding rather to die than to surrender to the Tau'ri, but there were others there who didn't share his opinion on how this should end. Even before the half hour time Anderson was prepared to give him elapsed, the connection reestablished once more, only for somebody else to be the one calling. Apparently, Marok had died by his hand and he was now in charge and more importantly he was open to the idea of surrendering.

The process lasted for the better part of the day in which the Jaffa slowly came out of their hidings and surrendered to the Terran forces. The Jaffa were transported through the gate to the Alpha site where they would be imprisoned in the detention facility the Terrans had there. The fight was over, Chulak was free once more and the thing that was the most important to Anderson, the Terrans sustained minimal losses, both in personnel and equipment. He didn't know how his superiors would feel about having to babysit almost four thousand enemy combatants, but he had the clear impression he would find out soon enough since he'd just received the call to immediately go to Tollana. Why Tollana, he didn't know.

* * *

**Tollana**

Anderson stepped through the gate and touched Tollana's soil for the first time in his life. Tollana had become a Terran colony almost a year ago and in that time the colony had grown considerably. The planet had Trinum, a substance that apparently the Terrans could never get enough of. No matter how much of the stuff they mined, the Terrans would always find new inventions where Trinium was needed. The result was that Tollana had grown considerably more than what they had anticipated at the beginning. It was logical, since Tollana was the only planet that belonged to the Terrans and that had the stuff in abundance. To this day, the colony had almost a hundred thousand citizens and there was a large city present where the Tollan's capital once had been.

As Anderson made his first steps, a sergeant approached him. Apparently he was waiting for him. The sergeant took Anderson to where Jack was waiting for him, sitting in a small picnic-type chair in the shadow of a tall three with a basket full of, what Anderson thought must be beer bottles and a large television in front of him. It was a strange site for Anderson, as Jack was dressed in shorts as if he was on vacation and the episode of the Simpson that was playing on the tv didn't help the situation one bit.

Jack saw how Anderson looked uncomfortable, not knowing the circumstances for him being here, "General! Please sit." Jack said to Anderson, pointing at the second chair that was apparently meant for him.

Anderson carefully sat on the chair, the whole time thinking about one thing only – _General?_ _Had Jack finally lost his mind or…_

"Sir, can I inquire on the reason for me being here?" Anderson asked, not knowing what to do.

"First of all, you don't have to call me sir anymore, so Jack will suffice." Jack continued, "Oh, by the way, congratulations on your promotion Lieutenant General."

"Uh… thank you sir… uh… Jack. When did that happened."

"Just about now. I've already read the report on what happened on Chulak and I was very impressed on how you solved the situation there with so little losses on our part."

"Thank you sir, I hadn't thought I would get a promotion for that though."

"Well, you'll need it if you are to lead an army on Langara."

_Langara?… army?… general? _Anderson was confused, "Langara?"

"Yes, Langara. We have intel the Ori are preparing to attack Langara and we need to stop them. Langara is our greatest human ally, not to mention an irreplaceable source of Naquadria, and we know the Ori are planning to attack the planet in less than a month.

"How are we planning to protect the planet from the Ori warships?" Anderson asked while Jack was giving him a beer. He accepted it, thinking this was just what he needed right about now.

"The same way we are planning to protect Dakara and any other planets the Ori decide to attack by ship." Jack continued, "The problem is, even with the cannons Liam promised to bring to the planet, we still don't have enough of them to protect the entire planet, not against the Ori warships. We need at least six cannons to be able to fire at any incoming ship and that means placing hundreds of cannons throughout the planet and we don't have so many to spare."

"And that means, the Ori will have a place where they can land without being under fire."

"Exactly, which means we need soldiers on the ground protecting the planet from ground assault."

"So, I'm to take a division or something like that and go there?"

"Not exactly. You will be in charge of all forces on the planet. Terrans, Guardians, Langarans, or whoever else we can bring there to help defend that rock."

Anderson swallowed with difficulty when he heard what his job would be, "Uh… Jack… may I be so blunt to say how I think this might be a little over my pay grade."

"You may and you are wrong about that. First of all, you _are_ ready. You have more experience than most Generals I know that have decades behind them, or better to say, decades behind a desk. You are also the only one who had actually fought on other planets that weren't Earth, and more importantly, you are the one who trained the Langarans. If there's anyone who's not from their planet the Langarans are going to accept as their military leader, that's you." Jack explained.

"Are you sure they will accept having somebody from another planet in charge of things? I mean, they will most certainly want one of their own people calling the shots."

"That's _never_ gonna happened, and leave that part to me."

Anderson fell silent. There was nothing else he could do. He knew he was screwed, with no chance of refusing orders as those he'd just received, and he had to admit, he was the best man for the job, at least, that he knew of. "Jack?"

"Yes?"

"Why are we having beer on Tollana?"

"Because of the fireworks."

"Fireworks? What fireworks?" Anderson asked. He could have sworn Jack enjoined being so cryptic a little too much.

"Gerak is coming with a fleet to take Tollana," Jack said with a mischievous grin plastered on his face.

"Has he finally gone mad, or is he just dumb?" Anderson asked not understanding what Gerak could possibly think he can achieve here.

"Probably both. He also doesn't know how well Tollana is defended."

"But he must have realized that we would never leave one of our colonies unprotected. Or not?"

"It looks not, hence the mad and dumb part."

"Oh my! I 'm going to really like watching Gerak make a fool of himself."

"And this will be the third time this week."

"Third?"

"Yeah. Teal'c has destroyed his fleet on PX3-267 and you ruined his plans on Chulak."

"Well, now we know he _has_ gone mad."

"Yep."

The display in front of the two men interrupted the episode of the Simpsons to show an image of space above their heads. They watched intently as several hyperspace windows opened, spitting a dozen Ha'taks and even more Al'kesh out of them.

Gerak had finally arrived.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Gerak's ship **

Gerak was mad! He had been since he'd heard the various reports depicting the complete and utter humiliation his forces had sustained, both, on P3X-267 and on Chulak. He didn't know which one was worse, the loss of an entire planet they'd just conquered with four ships lost in battle, or the display of cowardice his most trusted warriors had showed on Chulak. If displays of cowardice such as this one continued any longer, he would soon lose much more support from other Jaffa that are not even closely as loyal as those cowards on Chulak. He already had enough trouble after he became a prior, other Jaffa not really liking that fact as to them they were once again forced to believe in gods, and probably false ones as those before. He tried to sell them Origin, but as much as he would gain support from some, he would lose from others, but he thought that in the end all this wasn't so important, as the Jaffa would always follow a warrior who won in battle.

The problem was he wasn't winning, not by a longshot. The attack on Chulak wasn't because the planet was important or because he had some strategic significance. He'd ordered the attack on Chulak because it was home to Teal'c and Bra'tac and he wanted them to beg for the lives of the people on that planet, people they knew very well. As it turns out, he would probably be the one begging for mercy if his luck didn't turn for the better in the near future. His only consolation was that he'd found out the Tau'ri colony, Tollana, wasn't as well defended as it should be. This was the moment when Gerak would show the Tau'ri how they are not as invincible as they thought they were. He didn't even care he was going against the will of the Ori. Even they would praise him after they saw what he had accomplished with the destruction of the only Tau'ri colony in the galaxy.

As the twelve-strong fleet of capital Ha'tak ships, with even more Al'kesh ships as support, finally exited hyperspace in front of the beautiful blue planet called Tollana, Gerak felt a surge of content and happiness as the moment of victory was near. The cloaked ship he'd sent to gather information about the planet had showed there was a little over ninety thousands Tau'ri on the planet with many facilities holding who knows what kind of technology and knowledge Gerak could use.

As Gerak's fleet approached the planet in question, the sensors on Gerak's ship started blazing with alarm sounds as they started registering new previously unseen targets in orbit of the planet. As more and more were popping up as from nowhere, other strange readings from the planet's surface also started showing up. There was a lot of energy readings, readings too powerful to be from the various facilities on the ground. As Gerak watched the large screen with his jaw almost touching the floor of his ship, he noticed those readings were coming toward his fleet, very fast. He then remembered Dakara and the way the Tau'ri had protected the planet from Baal's forces. Those were the accursed plasma cannons the Tau'ri wielded, but how could his recon ship he'd sent have missed something so big. Then, he understood it must have been the same reason why the ship hadn't detected the various orbital weapon platforms that were now very much visible and very much in the process of firing at his fleet. At that moment, he did the only thing he could do. He used his powers as a prior to instruct the ship to turn and flee.

Dozens of massive balls of compressed plasma half the size of a football field flew with tremendous speed toward Gerak's fleet accompanied by even more, although smaller, but still deadly, plasma bolts fired from the myriad of weapon platforms in orbit around the planet. All ships in the fleet were at this point already changing course and turning to flee what had clearly turned out to be a very bad idea, but many weren't so lucky. The plasma balls slammed into the various ships, their shields as if not existent, collapsing on impact only to be followed with the same fate the next instant by the ship's hull. Ship after ship exploded in a spectacular display of power and destruction with Gerak's fleet being reduced into half in mere seconds.

Gerak's ship was the first to enter hyperspace, fleeing the accursed place where Gerak once again witnessed more destruction and utter defeat, all on his side. The other ships also got the idea of entering hyperspace before the Tau'ri decided to fire again. The space around Tollana was once more free of any enemy, only with much more debris left behind.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy Black Hole / Milky Way Galaxy – Supergate **

Sam and a very annoying Rodney were the one to lead the scientific team with the task of closing the supergate that was making many people very nervous. There was already more than enough Ori warships in the Milky Way galaxy to worry about and they really didn't need more of them to come through the supergate. The plan was simple and yet there was a great probability of making a mistake. That was the reason, or better to say, the only reason Sam decided to take Rodney on this mission. The man was a real pain in the ass, nobody could argue differently, but he was also the best man to calculate the various parameters they would need to adjust in order to detonate the nuclear device at the right time, the right location and with the right yield. The gate was located near a black hole, so there was that problem to think about. Anywhere near the damn thing, time passed by more slowly, so calculating the exact moment and trajectory of the nuclear missile wasn't an easy thing to accomplish. There was also the fact that if the yield of the bomb was too great, the gate would be destroyed, leaving nothing behind and the mission would end up being a complete bust. They didn't know how many gates they could _borrow _for this mission, but they would really like for this to work with the first one. The second problem was that if the bomb was too weak, nothing would happen and the mission would, once again, turn out to be a complete waste of time.

The gate was already in a geosynchronous orbit, if it could be called that, around the black hole. The gate had to be placed somewhere near the black hole, but still far enough from his event horizon to not suck the thing inside.

Rodney finally finished the calculations, more than certain it would work perfectly. Nobody else on the ship was so confident though.

The small gate connected with his pair in the Milky Way Galaxy located near the supergate. On his ship, Liam monitored the situation on the other side to see if the wormhole would jump to the supergate and, by doing so, creating a permanent wormhole, thus blocking any more Ori ships from coming to this galaxy. As he waited for the Terrans to enact Sam's plan on the other side, a hyperspace window opened. He had to say it, for the Ori to come here to check the gate, just when they were trying to block it, was a pretty good sign of bad luck. On the other hand, he really wanted to test his ship against an Ori warship.

The Ori warship immediately changed course when his saw Liam's ship, closing fast the distance between them. He fired.

Liam felt the sudden hit from the Ori warship main cannon firing his destructive beam of energy, "William, status."

"The shields are holding, but I wouldn't stay here and take too many of those hits if at all possible," William replied.

"Charge the primary weapon, and let's not take any chance. Charge it to 50 percent."

"Charging primary weapon," William said. "It will take 88 seconds to charge it."

The cannon started charging with antiproton particles, compressing them further and further. In the meantime, the Ori warship continued firing at Liam's ship as fast as it could. The ship shook once more, then once more, the shields already having dropped slightly, but the three ZPMs where doing a pretty good job at recharging the shield's generators. The cannon was finally charged and ready to fire, and Liam's ship was aligning itself in order to take the shot. The compressed beam of antiprotons erupted from the tip of the ship at relativistic speed, connecting with the Ori warship's shields only for the spatial distortion around the beam to bend the warship's shields and for the beam to continue through the entire length of the ship, spreading antiprotons throughout the inside of the ship in all directions. Antimatter met matter and new energy was born in a massive display of power and destruction. The Ori ship exploded in a massive fireball, obliterating every last molecule of the once proud and strong ship.

"You see! Things like this make a day perfect," Liam said while looking at the exploding ship in front of his.

"I think we've overdone it again, the same way we had done with the Senari last time."

"Maybe, but the Ori shields are much stronger and I didn't want to take the chance we would need to fire more than once."

Their little chat was interrupted when behind the ship the supergate erupted as the Terran had successfully jumped the wormhole from the smaller gate to the supergate. Liam informed them of the success of their mission, also telling them what happened in the meantime with the Ori sudden appearance. They'd ended up having two things to celebrate as now there was one less Ori ship to worry about and the Ori had no way of bringing more ships to the Milky Way galaxy.

* * *

**Langara **

Paperwork. Paperwork never ends. When Jack had told him, '_I know I don't have to worry about you kicking those Ori asses back where they belong, so I will only say this - Good luck with the paperwork,' _Anderson hadn't thought much about it. Now, he knew better. After the _fireworks_ on Tollana had ended, he and Jack went to Langara to inform them of what was coming their way. Of course, the Langarans were more than terrified at the news of the Ori coming to their planet. As a result, the three people representing their planet started bickering among themselves for the next half hour. The Kelowans, Tiranians and the Andari Federation had come a long way to unite their planet, but every once in awhile a simple bad news could bring them back to their old habits. Anderson watched their bickering, the entire time following Jack's lead as he had told him he would be the one talking while his job was only to stand there in the room and smile. Soon, Jack had also lost his patience with the three representatives, _pleading_ if they could leave the fight for another day so they could finally start discussing other more urgent matters. Once they quieted down, Jack started explaining what was going to happen next and they had been very happy to hear the Terrans wouldn't leave them dry, but their happiness lasted only until he mentioned who was going to be in charge of the defense of Langara. It was preposterous, utterly unacceptable and even insulting to suggest that somebody who wasn't a _Langaran_ would be the best man for the job. And yet, it was true and Jack's job was to make _them_ see it that way too. The first thing he did had been to let them know that, if they were to wait for the three of them to agree on who from their planet was going to lead, the Ori would come, enslave them, and leave while they would still be fighting on who should _have _been the person in charge. There was no way any of the three nations on the planet would leave someone from the other two be in charge and they reluctantly had to agree to that fact, but that didn't mean they were okay with having a Terran running the show. Then Jack had politely asked them if they knew of anyone on their planet who had more experience than the two decades Anderson had, with experience in wars on Earth as well as on other planets. Again, the Langarans didn't have such a person among their midst, but again they still weren't convinced. Then Jack informed them that Anderson was also the man who'd trained their soldiers for the past six months and that he probably knew them better than they did, at least, when it came to fighting. The discussion continued with the three representatives trying to find an alternative solution that didn't involve having a Terran in charge. Jack also told them they were prepared to send as much military hardware as possible no matter if they paid for it or if they didn't. This was also a point that played well with the representatives, but the card that Jack left for last was actually the reason why they'd accepted a Terran to be the man in charge. Jack, who was pretty pissed at that point, simply hinted to the Langarans that they could always try to defend their planet on their own if they didn't like how the Terrans did things. The idea of being left alone to fight the Ori was more than enough for the Langarans to accept his conditions whatever they were, the previous four points not even mattering or having any weight on their decision-making process anymore.

So, that was the way how he'd become the Commander in Chief in charge of defending Langara. Anderson was so trilled he wanted to catch a bullet with his teeth and that was before he'd found out the whole truth. As expected he had been transferred to Langara and he'd been given a large staff that would make sure everything was running smoothly so that he could prepare the planet for what was about to happened in less than a month. Then the convoys started arriving and he soon realized what a mess was going to be to sort out all the equipment the planet was receiving when it was coming from a dozen different Earth countries. The rifles and their ammunition was enough to make him want to quit and retire somewhere far from here. There were at least a dozen different rifles with even more types of ammunition that no Langaran knew how to pair. The wrong bullets would end up with the wrong type of rifles and he could swear some of those bullets were not even supposed to come here, since no rifle on the planet could ever fire them. Apparently the various countries took the opportunity to rid themselves of all of their junk, knowing that the Terrans could not possibly monitor everything they were sending, but that they would still have to pay in one way or another. That was the time he called back home and asked for a much larger staff. He received them and yet it still wasn't enough, especially after the various tanks, helicopters, artillery, transport vehicles, vests, rations, more ammunition, more rifles, and more in general started arriving. It was a nightmare, with his office so filled up with paper that he didn't know where the exit door was. Not that he had the time to leave the office anyway. He had been sleeping in it for the past week. The third time he requested for more personnel to help, he finally saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel. It wasn't relief. It was their doctor pointing a flashlight at his eyes after he fell unconscious from sleep deprivation.

After one day of obligatory rest and after the third batch of aid personnel had finally arrived on the planet, things did start to go a little better. At that point, many officers and enlisted from the 3rd Terran Army had already arrived and there was people there that knew which bullet was for which rifle only by looking at it and it didn't matter from each era the bullets or rifles were. They'd also started helping the Langarans to understand the new equipment, as there was still many of those who didn't have a clue about how to use what they were getting. Anderson knew the Langaran army and the new equipment were going to be a problem, so he decided to call all officers in charge and have a nice chat. When they came to talk to him, he recognized many from the time he had been their training officer, teaching them about modern warfare or, in some cases, at least trying. He immediately recognized those that he'd thought would get somewhere and also those that he thought wouldn't. To his dismay, many of those he didn't like had become high ranking officers who would be in charge of companies, battalions or even entire brigades. He needed self-reliant units that would be able to fight without constantly having to ask somebody from above what they need to do and he knew some of the officers standing in front of him were not that kind of soldiers. Many would freeze when bullets started flying while others would play heroes, not understanding that heroes usually turn up dead or at least in a hospital. It was a dangerous mix to have so many officers that he wouldn't trust and the solution was even less appealing. Usually, when those under you are incompetent the officer above tries to micromanage all the units he's responsible for and that usually ends up to be even worse. In war there is no time to wait for somebody who is not even present on the battlefield to constantly change things. There would be a too long gap and the units would eventually end up being ineffective or worse, dead. Thankfully, there were still many of those he did like who were high enough to watch over the others he didn't and he informed them that if they noticed any behavior that could jeopardize the safety of their respective units, they would need to inform him as soon as possible, or, if they had the necessary authority, to relieve the man of his duties and place somebody they thought would be good enough. He didn't even care if the person who would replace the person in question was a sergeant or a lower ranking officer. He needed competent men in the field and not titles. With that and with the order for them to familiarize themselves and the soldiers under their command with the new equipment as fast as humanly possible, he went back to his work.

The defense of Langara wasn't going to be easy. The territory they would need to cover was vast and there were many gaps in the protection grid of the cannons that the Ori could exploit to their advantage. The first thing he had to do was to minimize the area they would need to defend. He created three protected separate areas, one for each nation. Then he started by placing troops in the largest cities first, only to continue with smaller and smaller ones. At that point, two things would happen. He didn't have more troops available, or there were no more cities in the area. The first option meant that the remaining cities or villages had to be evacuated, or in the second case, troops could be reallocated to somewhere else. The areas that were going to be protected were large enough to encompass the largest cities and population of the respective nations, but there were still many regions that would be left unprotected. Those regions had small villages and a sparse concentration of people in them, and those people had to be relocated elsewhere. Of course, the Langaran protested as they wanted for their whole fucking planet to be protected, not understanding the simple fact that it wasn't possible. If they tried to protect every single house there was, they could end up giving the Ori what they need, letting them slowly chew up their forces until they felt strong enough to attack larger cities. He also had to worry about protecting important roads and the cannons that were supposed to protect them from the sky. The cannons had to be a priority as they would most certainly become the Ori prime target, so he decided to place them near larger cities that would have to be protected anyway, while also designating the Terran Army units to the defense of those cannons. The Terran Army had four Corps of about 25.000 soldiers each. Two Corps were placed in the Andari Federation and in Tirania respectively, while the other two were in Kelowna. Of course, once the attack would begin, the Corps would be relocated wherever needed and for that he needed to make sure the three nations were connected at all times. There was also the problem that, once the Ori showed up, there was a chance they won't be able to bring any more transport ships on the planet and in that case, the only way to resupply the troops would be through the gate and then by road. He knew there was a chance the other two nations could end up being cut off from Kelowna and that was why he ordered as much supplies to be shipped to those two nations. Not that he thought they would have a shortage of bullets, since they had brought so many they would soon have to start leaving the various crates on the street.

The six armies, two for each nation, the Langarans have, were those that could be called professional soldiers and they weren't all that was to protect the planet. The population of Langara knew what was coming and there had already been many who started preparing for a warm welcome. There were paramilitary groups all over the place who had been preparing to defend their homes and Anderson knew there was almost half a million of those armed to their teeth. The Langarans were at war with each other for a long time and they were not strange at having guns in their homes. Maybe they weren't freaks as humans on Earth that had many places where there was more guns than people living there, but still, the Langarans had a lot of guns, and with the Army receiving new equipment from Earth, they decided to give those who wanted to fight as much weapons as they wanted. The Langaran government also worked hard to prepare their population for what was coming. Field hospitals had been placed on many locations, storage areas were selected for food, medicine and whatever else they thought the population would need. The Langarans also built many more underground shelters and trained civilians on what to do once the war started.

Anderson also had a few more units from the Guardians. He really didn't know what to do with them since he didn't know what to expect and there was only a division of barely 10.000 of them. Liam informed Jack that the Guardians didn't have a lot of troops as they were more inclined to fill the needs of their fleet than their ground forces, but that wasn't the only problem. The document he had received contained the list of various types of units the Guardians would send to the planet and the list was strange to say the least. There were a lot of units he understood were some kind of Special Forces with various names he didn't know. For example there was only one company worth of soldiers they called GGR, then there was a dozen companies of what they called GST, and then more called GAU, GRT, GFU and so on. The worst part was that they were not scheduled to arrive until the last moment and he didn't know whom to ask for explanation. Anderson decided to leave them as reserves and once he found what he was exactly getting from the Guardians, he would act accordingly. He also had the clear impression that he should have received another document explaining the various units he was getting, but as it looked such document never crossed his desk.

The last estimates were the Ori would arrive in less than a week from now. Anderson thought how he had done what could have been done in the little time he had and he knew the Langarans would make the Ori followers bleed for every inch of their planet. From a Colonel, he became a Lieutenant General in one day and now, he had one Terran Army and six more Langaran Armies of similar size to worry about. When did things get so messy?

* * *

**Please leave a review. With the new system is even easier to leave one, so no excuses.**


	14. Chapter 14: War Part Two

**Author's notes: So, a new weekend is approaching and another chapter is ready and posted. I have to admit, in this chapter and in the next one, I had a lot of work cut out for me, especially since I'm far from being a military expert. Still I believe I was able to decently depict what is going on on Langara, but again, you'll have to be the judge of that.**

**Guest: Keep reading and you'll find out, and yes i agree, with a few thousand soldiers you can't conquer a galaxy.**

**chain reader: You're right, the laud speakers and harassment during the night is something I could have added. Dropping fliers on the other hand looks to me like a long term type of psych warfare, and the jaffa also don't look to me like the kind of people who would fall for such Tau'ri propaganda, definitely not in one night.**

**Snowdove: Keep reading. In this story everybody has a purpose, good or bad, and Gerak is not an exception. **

**Thanks for reading the story. Two more chapters to go. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Langara**

The Ori had come and they were here for the long run. They showed up with six warships, what the Allied Forces believed to be all the ships the Ori had at the moment. The small defensive force comprised of five Terran ships led by the Enterprise, with as many destroyers and cruisers from the Guardians were no match for the six Ori ships, but they weren't here to defend Langara from them. The ships had been intended as bait for the Ori fleet to come closer to the planet, thinking they had the clear advantage.

The disappointment was evident to all present when the Ori didn't fall for the bait and the Alliance didn't know why. Maybe it had been because the Ori knew what had happened to Gerak's fleet when he misguidedly attacked Tollana or maybe because in some way they had found out what awaited them on the surface of the planet. No matter what the reason was, the Ori didn't charge head first toward the planet. Instead, they went near the planet somewhere where the cannons couldn't hurt them, somewhere where they could land one of their ships while the rest remained in orbit above it, protecting the ship on the ground from any ship that tried to destroy it.

The Alliance didn't know how to feel about that. On one hand, the Ori had just landed on the planet and there was no doubt of what was to follow from that point on, but on the other hand, the brunt of the Ori forces was all here protecting the single ship on the ground and that meant the Alliance had reign over the rest of the galaxy as long as the Ori ships remained. They liked that fact very much since, no matter how many soldiers or priors they had, on other planets the Alliance had the opportunity to teach them a good lesson on what happens when you leave your rear vulnerable.

They also had much more time to prepare for the invasion of Langara than what they had predicted since the Ori never predicted it would be so difficult to conquer a planet such as Langara, thus not thinking about the extensive logistics that comes with having an entire army deployed far from home. After all, an army travels on his belly and just to provide food for hundreds of thousands of soldiers it was going to be a nightmare. Providing all the various equipment they would need for something that clearly wasn't going to be over in mere days or even weeks was going to be even worse. The end result was that the Ori had to take their time, setting up camps, transfer troops from another galaxy, provide adequate defenses for their encampments, provide food, shelter, clothing, transportation and many, many more things they didn't think they would need when they started this holy war.

The time it took them to achieve this colossal task the Langarans didn't spend in vain. They had also continued preparing, placing better defenses with more artillery support, built more trenches and more bunkers all around the various defense perimeters they had erected, but there was one problem that hampered their effort. The gate wasn't working.

The Ori somehow were able to connect the gate Anderson supposed they had on their ship and it could be weeks before they would break the connection to their own galaxy. In that time, the Terrans constantly tried to connect with Earth, but it was to no avail. The only way they had to bring whatever they thought they would need was by ships. Not a very pleasant prospect for the captains of the ships who had to exit as close as possible to the planet if they didn't want the Ori warships to turn and destroy them even before accomplishing their task. Nevertheless, the Langaran defense forces were getting most of what they were asking, especially since it was the Terrans goal to keep the Ori busy on the planet instead of letting them loose on the galaxy. There had also been changes in the Terran and Langaran forces on the planet. There were two entire Armies of new recruits that had been training for the past two months and they believed they were going to be combat ready in less than a month. The Terran Army also grew larger by more than twenty percent, as two more Divisions had been attached to the 1st and 3rd Corps of the Terran Army and the 3rd Terran Army now had 130.000 soldiers ready to kick some Ori followers. They were also receiving a lot of new hardware, as the factories on Asura went on overdrive, cramming up everything they could produce, ranging from combat armor, rifles, ammunition, the new type of tanks, APCs, fighters and hundreds of raptors that would provide the much needed air support. The Langarans still didn't have too many planes at their disposal, mostly because of the lack of trained pilots, and from what the Terrans understood by witnessing the Ori's fighters in action, their older planes were no match for them in the first place.

The Terrans also received something new, something they didn't believe it would be available so soon. The TAFV-X2 was similar to the first version of the Terran Armored Fighting Vehicle, but it had something that would be more than welcomed. The vehicle had the ability to project a relatively weak forcefield in a hundred feet radius that was capable of stopping handheld weapons fire, effectively protecting the soldiers standing nearby from incoming fire while at the same time they would be able to fire freely at the enemy. The forcefield would usually be directed only toward the front of the vehicle instead of losing precious energy protecting the rear and the forcefield also wasn't strong enough to stop stronger weapons as the plasma cannons the Jaffa used. The plasma fired from such a cannon was too powerful to be stopped and it would pass through it without too much trouble, but the advantage of being able to stop the fire from Ori soldiers was more than enough to give the Terran soldiers a nice advantage in combat.

All the preparations had lasted for more than two months with not even one bullet having been fired in all that time, but the waiting period was coming to an end as the rolling tide of almost two million Ori soldiers had slowly been reaching the frontline where the battle was going to finally begin. It was then that they had realized why the Ori had kept their gate open for so long.

Anderson and the eight Generals directly under him were in the ready room monitoring the situation on the large horizontal display on the table, depicting the entire situation on the planet. The display clearly showed the approaching army coming from the west and it meant the Andari Federation and Kelowna would be the ones to be attacked first, at least until the enemy managed to create a corridor on the north where they could continue their march to Tirania. That also meant the Andari Federation would be hit the hardest as the Ori army needed to conquer a portion of the aforementioned nation if they wanted to attack Tirania.

The group of Generals in the room didn't know if that was what the Ori had planned, but they were in complete agreement they needed to stop it from happening if at all possible. As a precaution, the Andari Federation received the 3rd and 4th Corps from the 2nd Langaran Army stationed in Tirania, as well as the 4th Terran Corps previously stationed in Kelowna. They had also made preparations for the entire 2nd Langaran Army to reinforce the Andari Federation frontline if it became necessary, but for now they didn't want to move so many troops before they knew the Ori's exact intentions.

"When will the Ori troops reach the Andari Federation first line of defense?" one of the Generals, the one in charge of the 1st Langaran Army stationed in the Andari Federation asked.

"They will reach the line in less than two days with the rest of their troops reaching Kelowna in a little over seven days. I won't ask if everything is ready to give them a warm welcome because I know it has been ready for a very long time now. Does anyone think we should reinforce those two lines with the troops we have in Tirania before they reach the line, say it now," Anderson asked and saw how nobody said anything. In these last three months he had installed a good working relationship with those directly under him and they had started to respect him as well. In the beginning, this wasn't the case. The various Langaran Generals thought of him as somebody the Terrans forced on them as the only way they would help, but in time they realized how it didn't matter how he got the job, since they realized the man _was _after all competent to lead them to victory.

The Guardians General, Mulan, scrutinized the map on the table, "What about our fast response units? Shouldn't we bring at least _them_ closer in order to be ready if we need to provide additional support at a moment's notice, if things don't go as we think they will?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"I was thinking we could relocate more of your raptors, TAFVs and other fast response units only a few klicks behind the line. This way we can provide more support if needed and even drop units behind enemy lines if we see a good opportunity. I also think we should prepare for a fast retreat of our troops if the Ori have some kind of surprise in their pocket. We have prepared for this thinking too much of the enemy as a bunch of peasants with guns. They could have, and eventually will most certainly have, something more to show us than just peasants."

"You think they have some nasty surprise for us that we don't know about?" Anderson asked.

"I do. They have millions of soldiers at their disposal, but that won't help them against well-fortified defenses we have placed along the frontline and they must know that, or at least I think they should know that. They had more than two months to think about it."

"I don't know. The intel suggests they don't have anything that we don't expect them to have."

"Exactly, and that worries me. How is it possible that they still think they could win against us without anything more than foot soldiers? Even our pessimistic predictions are talking about more than fifty times more losses on their side if they attack with light infantry alone."

"Alright, you have a point there. I also like to have some backup plan if things don't go as planned. For now, we will bring more air support units and APCs here," Anderson replied, pointing at the HQ of the 34th Infantry Division of the 1st Langaran Army, only 30 klicks behind the frontline, "and we should also have our transport vehicles ready for a retreat if indeed the enemy has something special prepared for us." Anderson didn't like the fact that this was the first time they were going to engage the Ori in such a large battle. There were too many unknowns for him to be at peace with the whole situation.

The meeting continued for several more hours in which time, the small group of Generals had thought about many more scenarios and the various ways they would react if these scenarios became a reality. In the end, they knew they did whatever they could to assure the best chance for defending the planet. Now, the only thing they could do was to wait the dreaded moment when the Ori would reach the Andari Federation first line of defense and for the war to finally begin.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy - Atlantis **

The rest of the universe didn't suddenly stop just because the Terrans had to fight a large engagement in the Milky Way galaxy. On the contrary, the Pegasus galaxy was more active than it had ever been. The Wraith were intensifying their culling on planets since they were now a united front, and a united front also meant they needed much more food than what had been the case in the past when they'd been fighting among each other. The Wraith would usually go in hibernation when the food supply would reach such a precarious level, but with the Terrans and the Guardians on a warpath, the Wraith didn't have that option. That also meant the Terrans and Guardians had to do something if they didn't want for the entire population of the Pegasus galaxy to be eaten and that was the reason why Soren, the Commander of Operations in the Pegasus galaxy had come to Atlantis. He had an idea for a very long time, but it wasn't easy to accomplish what he was planning to do and he would also need the help of the Terrans in Pegasus if they wanted to succeed.

Once the small group of very important people was seated in their chairs in Atlantis' conference room, Weir was the one to start the meeting. "So, Mister Soren, what plan have you come up with that will get us rid of the Wraith?" Weir was always the first who would want for the Wraith to just disappear, but she was also a little skeptic about this mysterious plan the Guardians had cooked up since on too many occasions they'd thought they had the right plan, only for it to turn into a complete waste of time.

Soren realized Weir, as well as the rest of the people in the room, didn't have great expectations, but they also didn't know how devious he can be, and that was something that was about to change. "Well, the plan is actually very simple in theory, but it won't be so easy to accomplish. The idea for this little project of mine is not new. It had been in the planning for a very long time, but because of the… cruelty of it, it had never been put into action."

"Cruelty?" Weir didn't like were this was going.

"Yes. The idea was to use the same device that is on Dakara to get rid of the Wraith."

"What?" Weir asked, now liking this conversation even less. She knew what the device was capable of.

"Please, let me finish. The idea was to relocate as many humans as possible, maybe even all of them, even though the chances of that were very small, but the idea was to use the device only after the humans in this galaxy have been relocated somewhere else. As you know the Wraith Lantean heritage means the device would affect humans as well. "

"Yes, we know. Alright, that sounds a little better, but there is also the problem that we can't just leave this planet, so the plan doesn't look feasible to me."

"It doesn't and that is why the plan had to be changed so that the device won't even be used in any form."

"And that leaves you with what exactly?"

"That still leaves us with the idea of relocating humans to another galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy to be more precise."

Weir thought for a moment, already wanting to ask, – '_and what then?'_ but she realized in time what the rest of the idea was, "You want to starve the Wraith?"

"We do, and I think we can succeed, now more than ever." Soren said, smiling. "The Wraith are already starving. There aren't enough humans in this galaxy to feed so many of them and even they know that, and they are planning accordingly."

"What do you mean, planning accordingly?" John interjected in what had become a dialog between Weir and Soren alone, pulling his chair closer to the table, now very much intrigued.

"We have intel suggesting the Wraith have pulled together a lot of scientists to work on finding a way to travel to other galaxies. I don't have to tell you what galaxy they have in mind."

"No, you don't. Do you have any intel that can help us stop those scientists from accomplishing that?" John said, clearly more interested in this part of the discussion than the part where they would starve the Wraith to death.

"Unfortunately, nothing concrete I'm afraid. We should also work on this together, but I still think my plan should be the main reason we're here today."

"How do you plan to transfer so many people to another galaxy? I mean, if you start ferrying people with transport ships, it will take decades to transport them all," Weir asked, not knowing how else they could accomplish that.

"No, we have a better idea. The first part of the plan is to gather humans from this galaxy and bring them on a planet of our choosing. The planet won't be on the list of available gate planets and whoever comes to the planet won't be allowed to leave because that would be a clear security risk. The Wraith could find where the planet is very quickly and we don't want that to happen. The planet is also only a quick stopping point for those people before being gated to a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. We have enough ZPMs to create a connection between two galaxies indefinitely if we need to."

"So you want to bring people somewhere they don't know where it is and without the ability to check if what you are saying is true. Do you think people will go for it?" Weir asked.

"That is the biggest problem, and that is also the reason why we need you. We have the planet ready to accommodate millions without any problem, so the logistic of the entire plan is not an issue, but the people of this galaxy don't know us and it is difficult to believe they would trust us, but they know you and many are going to trust _you_ if you ask them."

Weir thought about it for a few moments, mulling if this could actually work, "It sounds… possible, but I still think not everyone will be willing to leave their homes."

"We also think that there will be those who will want to stay behind, but even then it will be much easier to provide protection to a much smaller population. And with every person that decides to go, the Wraith lose one human they could eat."

John looked at Teyla who had been silent the whole time, "What do you think?"

"I think it is an interesting proposal and many will be willing to leave if they are convinced they will be free of the Wraith. The people of this galaxy have lived for too long under the constant threat for not at least give it a thought." Teyla explained, turning to Soren before continuing. "What will they find on the planet in the Andromeda galaxy?"

"We have already prepared a planet with whatever they would need to survive. Houses have been built on many locations so that people from different worlds won't have to share the same space with others, and we have stockpiled food, clothing and whatever else they could possibly need. Of course, they will eventually have to start providing for themselves, but that is not an immediate concern."

"So you have a planet fully prepared to accept how many?"

"Millions of people. As more will come, more will be built on the planet. I don't think that we even have a limit on how many can be transferred. The only problem is to convince them to come without having seen what awaits them on the other side. If you want, you can come to the planet we have prepared, both here in the Pegasus galaxy we are planning as a stopping point, and the final destination in the Andromeda galaxy. That way you'll be able to tell them what exactly awaits them."

Teyla started to like the idea. Soren also told her that the people who decide to leave could eventually return to their planet in this galaxy once the Wraith are taken care of. Of course, it would take years to be certain there was no more Wraith, in which time, the people relocated in the Andromeda galaxy would most certainly start calling that place their home, but it would be to them to decide what they want to do.

The idea began to take form and Soren revealed many more details of the plan. The plan wasn't a quick one. It would take at least six months of constantly transferring people to even say they have accomplished something and the plan would go on much longer than that. Soren also showed the predicted timeline of the plan, also depicting the falling curve that represented the number of Wraith that could remain awake without starving. It was strange for the Terrans in the room that, while they were bringing more and more people here in the Pegasus galaxy, they were also planning to relocate the rest of the humans already here to another galaxy.

Soren departed, leaving the Terrans to start planning the next step in which they were going to start sending teams to other planets to convince people about the validity of their plan. It was a good plan, one worth trying in order to free the galaxy of the Wraith once and for all. After all, the Wraith greatest weakness was and it will always be their dependence on humans to survive.

* * *

**Andromeda galaxy – Spatial Anomaly**

Liam had more work to do in the Andromeda galaxy. After he'd found a living and talking Senari, he was able to gather much more information on what was behind the anomaly. He had found information that was going to be very useful in the near future. He also promised the Senari prisoner, who wasn't a prisoner anymore, that he would work on finding a way to free the Senari from the imprisonment the neural implant had forced them into. From what he was able to ascertain, the device was a marvel of technology and he knew it wouldn't be easy to find a way to stop the device from controlling the Senari people. The problem was that he not only needed to find a way to stop it from controlling them, but also to find a way to keep the other functions the neural implant had to continue working. The Senari had become dependent on them to live and if the device was to be shut down completely, many would die. He also had to find a way to do all of that on a large number of them at the same time, as doing it at the individual level would be impractical.

After he promised to help, Mial told him what was behind the wormhole. As Liam already knew, there were six anomalies protected by large installations standing in front of them that would fire at whatever came through the anomaly that wasn't a Senari or Vargas ship. The seventh and central anomaly was the one from which the Vargas had come into the Senari galaxy and the Senari weren't allowed to travel through it. Mial explained how all Senari ships had an identification code, but he also said he didn't know how it worked or how to build one.

Three of the six galaxies had already been _cleared_ before it was the turn for the Andromeda galaxy. After the Senari would have cleared the Andromeda galaxy, it would have been the turn for the other two, but since the Senari had been stopped in their track by Liam's people, Mial didn't know if they would continue trying to enter the Andromeda galaxy or for how long before they decide to turn toward the other two. He also didn't know when the Vargas would eventually show up, since there had not been any contact between them for a very long time. The only thing he knew was that the Vargas hadn't come through the anomaly in more than ten thousand years.

Except for the work on the Senari device in order to find a way to break it, Liam also had another plan and the crucial piece that was going to allow the plan to work was the little device Merlin had given him. Liam spent a lot of time in the lab trying to understand what the device does and how it does it. The idea of being able to slip into another dimension in which nobody could see you or touch you could be a great advantage. The first idea that came to mind was how it would be an incredibly useful device to hide whatever he was doing from the ascended beings, but then he thought about it for a little while longer and he found out it would also be a good thing to have an entire ship capable of slipping into another dimension, thus being able to pass unnoticed wherever he wanted. He also knew it would come in handy to have such ability if he intended to enter the Senari galaxy without being shot the moment the ship stepped through the anomaly.

He had spent several weeks trying to understand the inner workings of the device and once he had, he spent even more trying to duplicate it. He'd soon realized the complexity of the device was so great that the only thing capable of creating it was the mentally operated device capable of virtually assembling anything he wanted in real time. The device was capable of keeping subatomic particles in place until the entire construct was ready to be transferred into the real thing. There was no production line, no matter if it used matter transfer or nanite assisted production lines that could build the device. There was simply no way to make the damn thing that way, and that meant there would never be a mass production of the device. He also found out how close to his limits of concentration he had to push his mind to keep the whole device from breaking apart before it was completely built.

When he had finally been able to build a similar device that he could integrate into a ship, he was so happy that he had to take a few days of rest as a reword. Until now he had built only two, the process of building them having taken a lot of his energy and time, and he wasn't ready to build more. One of the devices he had installed on his ship, while the other was installed on the battleship that was about to depart through the anomaly. The ship's job was to canvas the space in the Senari galaxy, visit the other two galaxies that haven't yet been visited by them, and to try and find if there is anyone there that knows more about the Vargas or if they can help in the fight that sooner or later will inevitably come. He also instructed the ship not to go through the central anomaly, the one that led into what Liam supposed was Vargas territory. He didn't want to push his luck and inadvertently trigger some alarm that would bring the Vargas to the Senari or even worse to the Andromeda galaxy. He needed as much time as possible before he would face the Vargas and for now he thought he had enough on his plate without poking the bear that resided in who knows what galaxy.

Liam watched as the battleship disappeared from space, only to reappear once his ship also shifted dimensions. He watched as the ship pushed forward, entering the anomaly and disappearing from sensors all together.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Langara **

Major Morris, leader of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade of the 34th Langaran Infantry Division was watching the Ori followers quickly approaching his location. It hadn't been easy in the past three months. Only then he had found there were some bad aliens in the galaxy that wanted to convert them to some freaky religion or else, to die. He thought about it and he couldn't find a reason why would they want to do such a thing, but he realized it was also beside the point. They had to defend their planet and that was all that mattered. He understood that and he was ready to do his duty as an officer and soldier.

Then the aliens had come only a month later and he'd thought the fight would start soon. Instead, he and his men had to wait for two more nerve-wrecking months before those idiots had gotten their shits together and finally decided it was time to attack. In that time, his company had spent their time waiting and waiting and the only thing they could do was to have drills, make improvements to their fortified position and do something with the new bullshit equipment coming from up the chain. In the last two months his men had to change their vests three time and their rifles 2 times, every time having to requisition replacement ammunition more than once because they were getting the wrong one. And of course, every time that had happened he had to retrain his men in the use of different guns. When the third time a new shipment of _different_ rifles came, he drove to his brigade's HQ and dropped the crates with the new rifles in front of his superior, barking there was no chance in hell he was going to change his company's rifles again. To his utter astonishment, the Colonel in charge didn't shoot him on the spot. He didn't even send him to court martial for insubordination. Instead, he more or less congratulated him for being the first one to actually say something about the whole logistical mess those upstairs were making and in a way, from that point on, he became the Colonel's pupil and no more crates with the wrong equipment ever came his way. The Colonel also informed him that he should under no circumstances try to do what he just did with another superior, as he would most certainly end up court martialed. He took the advice to heart and returned back to his unit.

His company, together with the rest of the battalion, had been tasked to defend one of the few crucial positions in the Andari Federation front. The position was important because, north of them, there was a large mountain range stretching for almost a thousand miles from the west to the east, and if the Ori wanted to reach Tirania, they needed to pass through this passageway for another fifty miles before they could turn north. This was why a full battalion was deployed to defend the narrow passage of only half a klick and that was also why the Ori had chosen this place to start their invasion. If they were to succeed in breaching through the defense line, they would be able to open another front on the north to both, the Andari Federation and Tirania and that was something they couldn't afford to have.

The Ori had placed one of their Headquarters somewhere around fifty klicks to the west and he didn't like the sight of it. The Ori weren't stupid. They couldn't force their entire army to walk for hundreds of miles from where they had landed their ship and where they had their main encampment. Instead, they'd sent a few thousand soldiers to build forward camps, with one of them being only fifty klicks from here. The camp had a strange and ominous fence the Terrans called a forcefield that they thought was capable of protecting their encampment from most attacks. They'd also placed some kind of rings through which their troops were being transported instantaneously from their main encampment. He'd thought how it would be a good thing to have something similar and he knew the Terrans were able to build those rings, but the Terrans informed them it wouldn't be a good thing to have such a similar tech on the frontline as the Ori could use it to send troops or, worse, bombs through the unsecure devices.

No matter how those devices worked, the Ori had been able to bring a fifty thousand strong force in a very short time, only fifty klicks from his company's location and the intel suggested more were coming all the time. There had also been those that suggested _they_ should be the one to go on the offensive immediately and attack the Ori encampment, but even he knew that wasn't such a good idea. They knew too little about the enemy to attack them, and defending a fortified position is always easier to do.

Captain Morris watched through his binoculars the thousand strong Ori vanguard only a thousand meters on the west, marching fast toward their location. He'd already called HQ to inform them they would soon need the artillery and he was now looking through his binoculars to see if there were any priors in the enemy's midst. The Terrans had been adamant that, if they spotted a prior, they must call them immediately. Apparently the priors were very powerful advanced humans with incredible powers, capable of stopping whatever you threw at them. He was glad to see there weren't any, which meant they would need to fend off only infantry. He gave the order to the marksmen he had in his company to start chewing up the incoming force. The dozen snipers from his company, as well as more from the other companies on the south of his position, started barking bullets. Still looking through his binoculars, he saw many enemy followers falling to the ground, only for those that remained to increase their pace. It was as if the loss of the man standing beside them was of no concern to them. The Terrans had also informed them the Ori followers were fanatics who thought they would ascend to a higher plane of existence if they died while serving the Ori.

'_What a bunch of idiots!' _It was the only thing Morris could think of them.

It was time. He called in the artillery to fire at 800 meters to the west from his company's location, knowing it would take two more minutes before the shells started raining on the enemy. He also knew many of the enemy soldiers would have already passed the position where the artillery was going to rain their deadly payload, but that was exactly what he wanted. He wanted for the Ori soldiers to be cut in half by the artillery. Those who managed to pass through before the deadly rain started, would be dealt by his and the other companies men. All of his men were entrenched deep, with every squad having at least one heavy machine gun ready to fire at the enemy soldiers.

He heard the sound of the artillery shells flying, many from the larger 120mm cannons more than 10 klicks behind them, but also accompanied by even more 60mm and 81mm mortar shells positioned only a few klicks back. It didn't matter. They had all been timed to drop at the same time.

Explosions erupted one after the other, with shrapnel flying in every direction and cutting soldiers to pieces, only for the survivors to continue their trek towards them. As the enemy soldiers reached 300 hundred meters from their position, heavy machine guns added their weight killing more of the unfortunate enemy soldiers. The enemy replied in kind, with bolts of energy flying their way, but they didn't have any fast-firing weapon at their disposal and their staff weapon wasn't ideal to fire while on the run, especially not on entrenched soldiers. No matter how ineffective their weapons were, it was inevitable that, sooner or later, some energy bolt would find a target. Morris watched as a few of his men were hit and he understood that one hit from their weapon meant death or, if lucky, severe injury for the unfortunate man being hit. He also noticed the Ori soldiers were trying to circumvent the area targeted by the artillery by turning toward the woods on the northwest of his position, only to watch more explosions erupting were the soldiers went. They had just entered a minefield and their situation wasn't any better than of those who were under the constant bombardment of the artillery. And yet, they kept coming.

The attack continued for another half hour. In that time, the Ori had lost almost a thousand of their resilient followers while his forces had sustained minimal casualties. A few times, the enemy had been able to reach the trenches where his soldiers were, but even then his men were more than ready to give them a warm welcome. In the end, the assault had finally subsided, with only a few sporadic soldiers trying to crawl toward the line, but they were being quickly dispatched by his men. Morris was glad the attack was finally over. He would have time now to tend to the injured or dead and to replace them with the soldiers who were already waiting to reinforce the line. Although everything went as good as it could possibly have gone, Morris had the clear impression this wasn't the real attack. He thought how this was only to test their capabilities, to see how strong their defenses were and that the real fight hadn't begun yet.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Dakara **

Jack had been traveling a lot in the last few months. With the gate on Langara not working, he had to take the ship if he wanted to reach the planet. It wasn't a long voyage, the Enterprise more than capable of crossing the distance in less than half an hour if they pushed their engines, but there was no replacement for the useful rounded device that made trips like this be almost instantaneous. There was also no real reason for him to go to Langara, but he knew the people there would appreciate the gesture of him coming in person and asking how things were or if they needed anything. He also liked spending some time talking with Anderson in a more casual way than through a conference call. In the two months since the Ori had landed, he had visited Anderson on many occasions and they had spent a few hours drinking beer and discussing whatever troubled Anderson at the moment. He knew Anderson had a lot on his plate and not many people to whom to talk to. He knew the man was spending every waking moment working on improving their situation as much as possible and Jack also wanted to make sure the Langarans didn't give him too much grief. He had been more than happy to see that Anderson had installed a good working relation with the people on the planet and they in turn had also learned to respect him. This was very important as Anderson had to rely on them to get the job done.

Except for the frequent trips to Langara, Jack also had to go on Dakara to coordinate the effort against the traitor Gerak. Of course, he could have reached Dakara much faster through the gate, but the Council felt that in time of war, he should have a much better protection detail than just two SG teams traveling with him through the gate. As a result, they had installed a new policy where he was obligated to have at least one capital ship in orbit of the planet he was about to visit and since most of the time it was stupid to wait some ship to reach the planet in question before he could gate there, the Enterprise became his second home and also something similar to the Air Force One, just on a galactic scale. The commander of the ship didn't mind though. Amy Donovan was actually quite happy to learn that Jack wasn't one of those who would use his higher ranking to run her ship. Instead, he would leave her do her job in peace as it should be. It didn't matter if there was an equivalent of a five star General on the ship. She was the commander of the ship and nobody else should dictate how things had to be done.

The Jaffa Council also appreciated the gesture of the Terrans finding time to come to Dakara and show their support for their cause, especially now with all they had on their plate.

"… We have enough warriors to protect our territory! We can send a hundred thousand warriors to Langara and we would not even notice they are not here." Bra'tac ended explaining to Jack that the FJN was more than capable of helping fight the Ori on Langara.

"I'll tell you what, you beat the crap out of Gerak's forces first and then you are more than welcome to join the fight against the Ori on Langara. The battle there has just begun and we have over a million pissed off Langarans armed to their teeth ready to kill some Ori fanatics the moment they show their faces." Jack explained.

"But the Ori have more than two million followers on Langara?" Bra'tac continued advocating for their involvement.

"Those followers will get their ass kicked once they clash against the Langaran fortified positions. The Langaran position is even better fortified than what we had when Baal attacked Dakara. As you remember they had more than twenty times the numbers we had and we all know how that ended." Jack concluded what he thought would be enough to end the conversation, but he saw on Bra'tac face that he still wasn't convinced. He knew the Jaffa were proud warriors and he knew they wanted to show their usefulness. He decided he should sell it a little better, "Look, Gerak is now on the defensive. He has lost many supporters after losing face on Tollana, Chulak and PX3-267. Now is the time to push him out of the game. You now have more warriors, more ships, and to top it all, the new ships you are building are much more powerful than what he has. Let's put the bastard in the ground and end this once and for all. We are more than prepared to provide ships to end his reign of terror. We actually don't know what to do with them, since the Ori forces are all amassed in the Langaran system and the rest of the galaxy has gone completely quiet for the moment. Even the Lucian Alliance has realized they shouldn't mess with us while we are trying to get us rid of the Ori. They are as scarred as we are of the Ori threat and they know they don't stand a chance against them without us."

"The problem is not the number of ships. We now have more than enough to take Gerak down, but the problem is, we do not know where he is." Teal'c replied to Jack's little speech. "If we knew where he is, we would already have taken care of him."

"So, Gerak also went underground. What about the planets under his control? Wouldn't he use his fleet and try to protect them?" Jack asked.

"Gerak does not control any planet of any significant strategic value. After Gerak has lost the ships on PX3-267 and those on Tollana, many have rejoined the FJN not wanting to follow a loser that had also become a prior of the Ori. We went on the offensive and a few days ago we were able to retake control of the last planet with a shipyard on it. Gerak does not have any more assets to protect and he must rely on the two dozen Ha'taks he has left as the whole of his forces." Teal'c explained.

Jack was thoughtful. "There must be a way to find him, wherever he is hiding. Don't you have at least a few spies in his midst?"

"We had, but they have all gone silent a month ago. We fear Gerak used his powers as prior to find who is loyal to him and who was not." Teal'c explained.

"This is also the reason why we are prepared to send troops on Langara. We have no use for them, as we have no fight left to fight." Bra'tac added.

Jack understood what was going on here. The Jaffa, as warriors, wanted to continue the fight, but they didn't have an enemy to fight anymore, "If this is true I have a better idea on what you can do. There are still many planets that have been _converted _by the Ori and we need to go on the offensive on those. If we weaken the Ori on those planets, they will be forced to leave them or to send more soldiers there. And if they send more soldiers there, it means they will send less to Langara. I also think it is time for us to stop being on the defensive and start pushing the Ori out of this galaxy. They can't use the Supergate anymore and that gives us an advantage. What do you say the Jaffa start kicking some Ori butts?"

The Council was thoughtful. They actually liked this idea even better then to help defend Langara. The Jaffa had always liked more to go on the offensive than to just defend their position. Teal'c and Bra'tac looked at each other, as if they could telepathically exchange thoughts. Bra'tac turned to Jack, "This is something the Jaffa would be more than interested in doing. Do you have any specific planet in mind?"

"Planet? I have many planets in mind. We should start clearing all those near Langara, and push outward from there to whatever planet is not free from Ori presence." Jack explained how there was a lot of work to do.

The Jaffa agreed, taking upon them to be the force that would free the galaxy of the Ori presence. Jack was glad they came to a satisfactory arrangement. The idea of having Jaffa on Langara wasn't very high on Jack's wish list. The problem wasn't that he didn't trust them, but more the fact that they already had three distinct races on the planet having to work together, with all the different ideas on how things should be done, and he really didn't need to have one more race on the planet having several more ideas on how to wage war. He also thought the war on Langara could only be ended if they were able to destroy the Ori warships in orbit around the planet and not by fighting on the ground. Bringing more troops on the planet could maybe increase their defensive capabilities, but not their offensive ones since he had no intention of attacking the Ori on foot. He also knew they weren't ready to take six Ori warships right now, at least not if they didn't want to lose too many ships in the process.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy **

Weir was having another headache on her plate and once more, John was the cause of it. She also blamed Jack for that. He was the one who told John how becoming a General only meant that nobody could say no to him. John had argued that he didn't want the promotion as he wanted to be on the field and not behind some desk, but Jack had told him it was nonsense to think like that as he could do whatever he wanted once he became a General and that if he wanted to occasionally go on some mission, he could do it without having anyone to answer for it. Weir knew that Jack just wanted for John to take the damn promotion, but she also knew that the way he was trying to persuade him was going to eventually give _her _a lot of grief. And today was the day when John used the _'I'm in charge card' _and decided to take his old team on a little stroll. She'd tried to make him understand that going to visit the Genii in order to convince them to leave the Pegasus galaxy wasn't just a stroll as he'd called it, but more like a dangerous mission in which the person that was in charge of all the military forces in the Pegasus galaxy should most definitely not be a part of. When John argued with her that _Jack told him_ how he could do it if he wanted to, Weir's head almost exploded in frustration. She'd decided that in the very near future she would have to exchange a few not very pleasant words with Jack on how he tricks people to do what he wants with the wrong tactic and that there are always consequences that usually _she_ would have to suffer. She also tried to trick John by stating how if it was alright for him to go on a mission, it was also alright for her to go as well, but John understood what she was trying to do and he actually said she should come with him, knowing full well she wouldn't do it. As opposed to him, she was a responsible person who knew how stupid that would be. In the end, the only thing she was able to accomplish was to force John to take two additional teams as support, stating it was obligatory for all high ranking officers as stated in the rulebook of the Terrans Alliance. Of course, the rulebook actually spoke of this disposition as being obligatory only for the council members, but she knew John didn't know that as she was more than certain he didn't read the aforementioned rulebook. Another trade he had picked from Jack.

John, Rodney, Ronan and Tayla, followed by two SG teams in full combat gear, gated on the Genii homeworld, or at least what they thought it was since the Genii were everywhere and they really didn't know if this was actually their home planet or only one of the many bases they had. The Genii had been informed of their arrival as they didn't want to create some incident that would deteriorate their already precarious relations any further. As expected, the three Terran teams were greeted by two dozen Genii soldiers the moment they stepped through the gate. The atmosphere was tense, there was no point in denying it, but John thought that it was in both sides best interest to stay calm and that if they did, the talks would go smoothly.

"Please, let's lower our guns, shall we. We are here to talk, nothing more." John stated, trying to calm down the incredibly volatile situation.

"Then you should be also the one doing what you are preaching," one of the Genii soldiers replied.

John sighed, nodding to his teams to do just that and the teams only reluctantly complied too his order, "Here, you see. No reason for pointing guns at each other."

The same soldier that had spoken earlier ordered for his men to do the same. After they complied, he continued, "Please, follow us."

John nodded and they all started following the Genii to the small village where they were supposed to meet with their leader, Ladon Radim. John didn't know much about the man, but he was more than certain he would be more receptive to what they had to say than Kolya would have ever been. He also didn't know how he having captured Kolya would play out in the large scheme of things. On one hand, he knew Radim was in power only because Kolya had been taken out of the picture, but on the other hand, he also knew nobody liked a person who killed or captured some of their own, whoever they might be.

"I don't think it was such a good idea for us to bring two more teams to this meeting. It makes the Genii even more paranoid than they usually are." Teyla stated.

"Well, if the rules state John can't go anywhere without an escort, there isn't much we can do about it," Rodney said, actually liking the idea of having some support in case things didn't go as planned.

"Rodney, there is no such rule." John explained, constantly looking around, trying to spot if there were more Genii soldiers hiding somewhere in the vicinity.

"There isn't?"

"Well, there is, but it only applies to council members, and as far as I know I'm not a council member." John explained.

"Then why we have two SG teams following us?"

John looked at Rodney with a quizzical look. For being a man of unparalleled genius, he sometimes turns out to be really dumb, "Because I wanted Elizabeth to stop nagging at me. If I haven't agreed on the two additional teams, we would still be in the gateroom."

"Oh... now I get it. Well, if you ask me I'm still glad we have a few more guns for backup. This people here are making me really nervous, and by the way, I still don't know why I had to come on this mission. It's not like you'll need a scientist."

"Rodney, you are here because you have spent the last six months cooked up in your lab, drinking 10 cups of coffee each day and your entire exercise plan consists of walking from you room to the lab. A little walk will do you some good."

"Oh yeah, sure. Getting a bullet will clearly improve my health."

"Rodney, nobody is getting any bullet. You have Chewy here to protect you," John said, pointing at Ronan.

Rodney had to agree. _Chewy_ did save his life on many occasions. At one point, he thought of Ronan almost as being his personal bodyguard.

As their strange conversation continued, the twelve visitors and their escort finally reached the village, entering the same house they had already visited a long time ago when they needed to find food. Rodney hoped it would go much smoother this time than it had the last time and that also nobody would ask him to build a nuclear bomb, even though he didn't mind the challenge. The two teams had to remain outside while SG-1 would talk to Radim who was already waiting inside. The team sat on the opposite side of Radim, with Sora also present there standing on Radim's left side. Sora had eventually been freed after having been captured on Atlantis. They had then thought that, after they showed her they weren't the bad guys, she would talk to her own people and convince them of the same, but, as of now, there was no indication she did anything in that regard.

"The SG-1 team. What do I owe this unexpected visit?" Radim began the conversation. He was also very interested why they were here.

"Radim, it's nice to see you again. We have a few things we need to discuss, but you don't have to worry, they are actually good things, I promise."

"Oh, that's good to hear. What is it?"

"Well, I'll go straight to the matter and just say it. We are planning to relocate the entire population of humans here in the Pegasus galaxy to another galaxy, somewhere the Wraith cannot reach you."

Radim's eyes widened. He really wasn't sure if he'd heard John correctly, "You want to do what?"

"You heard me right. We want to relocate all the people from this galaxy to someplace else. We want to take everyone to a safe place while the Wraith starve to death." John repeated what he said earlier.

Radim went completely silent for a long moment. He didn't know what to say, how they intended to do it or much less what the repercussion for his people would turn out to be. He decided to start filling the blanks, "How do you intend to accomplish that?"

"Anyone who wants to leave this galaxy just needs to follow us to another planet in this galaxy where the gate there will take them to another galaxy, and that's it."

"That sounds too easy. I don't think you can bring so many people and all their stuff so easily."

"Not their stuff; just people with only their clothes on them."

"You can't be serious! You want us to leave everything we have behind. And then what, we reach that other planet and we have to start all over?"

"No, you wouldn't have to start over. The planet has been prepared to accommodate as many people as needed. The planet can take the whole population of the Pegasus galaxy and there are living arrangements, food, clothing and whatever else you'll need already waiting there. There are also separate locations on the planet so that, for example, your people won't have to share the same space with others."

Radim once again fell silent as this news really changed things. The Genii had other plans, many that were actually against the Terrans and if they decided to leave the galaxy, not one of their plans would be feasible anymore, "And what if we don't want to go? What if we want to stay?"

John knew that Radim wanted to know if they would force them if they were against it, "If you don't want to go, we won't force you, but you must understand that as more and more humans leave this galaxy, the Wraith will become more and more aggressive and thorough in their search for food, which means that those who are going to stay will have a difficult time here. You should also know that, after the Wraith are defunct, you'll have the choice of returning to this galaxy. We think it will take one year or maybe two to eradicate the Wraith completely."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why? I told you, we want to end the terror of the Wraith in this galaxy, and the only weakness they have and that we can exploit is their food supply," John replied.

"From what we heard you were doing a great job so far, you and that other race, the Guardians."

John didn't know how Radim knew about the Guardians. It wasn't as if the Guardians advertised their involvement in this galaxy and he knew they weren't having any contact with the Genii, "I don't know what you heard, but I can tell you that those rumors are exaggerated. The problem is, as many ships we manage to take down, they manage to build more. Their ships are grown and not built and their foot soldiers are not born, but cloned. No matter how much we kill, more are being _made_ and the battle continues with no real progress and we have other problems in our own galaxy to worry about."

"What kind of problems?"

John sighed. He knew if he started omitting facts it would be enough for the Genii not to trust them, "There is an enemy even more powerful than the Wraith we are fighting in our own galaxy."

Radim was stunned. He couldn't even fathom what a more powerful enemy looked like, "And you want to relocate us to your galaxy, a galaxy with an even more powerful enemy?"

"No Radim. The people of the Pegasus galaxy will be relocated to the Andromeda galaxy. The galaxy is closer, which means easier to connect with the stargate, and yet distant enough for the Wraith to be unable to reach it."

Radim remained thoughtful for a long time. There was a lot to think about and from what he'd just heard he didn't like how the situation was developing. He also knew they'd be screwed if every other human in the galaxy decided to leave. They would be the only remaining food source for the Wraith, and that was not a very appealing thought. "We'll have to check things out. I can't give you an answer with so little information."

"Take your time. We will check with you from time to time and when and if you decide to go, we will make it happen." John said already getting up from the table.

"I actually thought you would stay as our _guests_ while we check things out."

"No, we have other planets to visit," John said, no matter that he knew Radim's invitation wasn't actually an invitation.

"Sheppard, this wasn't an invitation."

"Oh well, let's pretend it was. I don't think the captain of the warship in orbit above us would be very pleased if it wasn't," John said with a serious tone of voice.

Radim thought about what John had just told him, as the idea of having a very pissed off captain in orbit wasn't something he would like or want, "Alright, we will be in touch."

John nodded and the four of them left.

"I didn't know we have a warship above us?" Rodney whispered to John once they exited the small establishment.

John rolled his eyes "We don't Rodney, but they don't know that, do they?"

Rodney smiled, thinking how once again they were barely able to leave and only because of a cheap trick.

The team went to the stargate. There were more planets they needed to visit as quickly as possible if they wanted for this plan to begin any time soon.

* * *

**Langara **

Major Morris had two easy days with a lot of resting. The Ori hadn't attacked once after the first assault he still believed was only something they did to test their strength. But he could almost feel it in the air that, soon, another attack was coming. He didn't know what the Ori had done in those two days and he hadn't really cared. The only thing that mattered to him was that their little attack had boosted the moral of his men to an all-time high and they were more than ever eager to prove themselves in battle.

Half an hour later, their wishes had been granted when they spotted the enemy two klicks to the west amassing their troops. There were many more soldiers this time, as even counting them was too difficult of a task to accomplish. Morris was certain there were more than ten thousand soldiers coming their way and this time he knew it wouldn't be that easy. As he watched the enemy soldiers approaching, he informed HQ of the imminent need for the artillery. As before, he gave the order to his marksmen to start raddling the enemy even though he knew the result was going to be negligible. The dozen marksmen almost didn't have to take aim since the concentration of enemy soldiers was so great that they practically couldn't miss. The dozen soldiers only needed to point in the general direction and shoot and somebody would get hit. Followers fell to the ground every time a bullet would be sent, but the dozen marksmen were nothing compared to the tide of ten thousand enemy soldiers.

Two minutes after Morris had made the call, the artillery started their relentless bombardment, this time on an even greater distance then before. Morris once again watched through his binoculars the carnage that was happening only a mile away. As much as he could devise, there was no new tactic involved in the enemy's approach. It was just a bunch of people running towards them with reckless disregard for their own life. The result was the enemy having even greater losses than before, and yet, they still kept coming. He called the artillery two more times in quick succession to change the firing distance until he couldn't call them anymore because the shells would have started raining on their position. He also saw something else the enemy didn't have the first time. With his binoculars he watched as several enemy combatants were caring a different kind of weapon and the large and bulky look of it didn't inspire any confidence.

The large handheld cannons spat a strange looking orb that flew into the air, only for it to fall in his company's midst. There was no large explosion as he'd predicted it would happen when the orb touched the ground. Instead, the orbs just burst like a balloon filled with water in all direction. Except, it wasn't water the liquid that spilled everywhere, it was superheated plasma.

The screams of those being splashed by the hot liquid were the worst. The damn thing was capable of going through everything the soldiers were wearing as if they were naked. He quickly ordered his company to concentrate their efforts on taking those accursed cannons out of the picture. The only positive side he could think of was that, since it was a handheld weapon, the accuracy and range weren't as good as that of their own artillery. There wasn't a lot of people who died from the superheated plasma those orbs contained, but injuries were starting to mount as few of them fell directly inside the deep tranches with many soldiers around them. It was horrible to watch and he didn't know what more he could do to stop them from falling on his men. As on cue, the situation went from bad to worse when he noticed the rear of the approaching enemy forces now in the middle of the field where the artillery was dropping shells had stopped dying as they did so far. Instead, the shells would hit a blue barrier that protected the soldiers from harm. In the center of the protective bubble, a man with a shining staff in his hand walked while surrounded with as many soldiers as possible. Anderson ordered the strong 50 caliber snipers to fire at what the Terrans have warned them were priors in order to take them out. Bullet after bullet flew toward the target, only to be stopped by the protective bubble.

Without waiting any longer, he called HQ as they told him to if he spotted a prior among the enemy troops. Things weren't looking good as their fire was becoming less and less effective, while the enemy on the other hand was intensifying their efforts. The brunt of the enemy was now at only five hundred meters in front of them and even their energy weapons were starting to weigh on the soldiers. It was then, that he heard the strange wining sound of the Terran Raptors coming from behind. Two landed just behind him while many more flew toward the other companies holding the line. They weren't the only one as armored units, consisting of APCs and various types of tanks, started rolling behind him. Apparently HQ wanted the line to hold as new troops started exiting the transport vehicles, running toward the tranches to reinforce the soldiers already fighting the approaching troops. From the Raptors, Terran soldiers poured out, some holding a strange looking bulky weapon, while others had some ominous looking sniper with some kind of telescope attached to it that Morris thought it could see a fly from a mile.

The strange and bulky looking gun actually wasn't a gun, but something else, something the Terrans and the Guardians developed from a device that was apparently capable of stopping the prior's awesome powers. It was the secret weapon against the priors. The soldier with the sniper took aim at the prior he had chosen, immediately informing the other man he was ready to take the shot. The other man fired the directional ultrasonic burst from the bulkier weapon he was handling and, as of magic, the protective bubble the prior was projecting simply seized to exist. The other man fired from his sniper, much less lauder than what Morris believed it would be, but the result was astonishing none the less. The prior's head exploded, quickly followed by more priors following the same fate as more and more Terrans did the same. As prior after prior began to fall, the raptors took of once more and fired a barrage of missiles at the approaching enemy forces who didn't have the protection of the prior's barrier anymore. All of that was accompanied by the M60A3 tanks firing from their main gun spitting 105mm anti-personnel High Explosive rounds and from their two heavy machine guns riddling the enemy with .50 caliber bullets. The Ori soldiers suddenly found themselves naked in the wake of their precious priors' demise. Explosions from the myriad of different weapons the allied forces were firing started thinning the brunt of the enemy's charge, cutting down hundreds of soldiers as it were nothing. The Ori soldiers dispersed quickly, trying to minimize the effectiveness of the high explosive rounds directed at them, only to be cut down by the infantry who was now being reinforced with more troops and more machine guns.

And yet, no Ori soldier fled. They continued charging with only a few actually being able to reach the tranches. Morris soon understood that even those few could do much damage as he saw the fanatic followers detonating bombs they were carrying. The worst part was that many of the followers would smile as they thought they would finally receive their reword once they died.

It went on for the entire day as more and more enemy soldiers kept coming. Sometimes, they would be able to fend the Ori soldiers with relative ease, while other times, they would sustain casualties as the soldiers came too close to the trenches. The attack finally stopped, with the man exhausted by the constant attacks and with Captain Morris almost unable to find any of his men who were from the original company. There was also massive damage to the various tanks, as they became the primary target of the Ori cannons that dropped orbs of superheated plasma on them. The tanks and various APC were also their salvation as it took a lot of punishment to pierce the 156mm thick armor with that kind of weapon, and the infantry took much less of the same fire as a result. Still, the line had held and the Ori had lost almost twenty five thousand of their followers in the attempt to breach through the line, and what was in the field in front of Bravo Company was clear sign of what had happened today. Bodies of Ori followers were soaking the ground beneath with their blood, misguided by a ruthless race that didn't care about them, a race that didn't care how many it would die because they had many more to replace the fallen. It wasn't a pretty sight and he knew, soon, the smell of decomposing bodies would start and he didn't know what to do exactly. Somebody would have to go there and take those bodies and bury them or burn them someplace else. Maybe they could just drop napalm and be done with it, but they also needed to check the field and take the Ori weapons and whatever else they would find in the field. The Terrans were especially interested in whatever new weapon the enemy used in order to find a countermeasure if possible. They were also interested to see if they can replicate them and use them against the Ori, but Morris thought, at least for now, there was no new weapon worth replicating. The only positive side he thought was that it looked like the Ori didn't have an unlimited amount of priors at their disposal as, after they'd started dying at the hand of the strange Terran weapons, they soon stopped coming.

The Terrans also stayed, bringing even more of the same weapon, predicting the Ori would eventually continue sending more priors. They also placed a lot of those ultrasonic devices in the ground, the type that would protect them against priors who would reach the trenches. They had a pretty good idea on how devastating a fully-fledged prior can be if he was to be allowed to reach their position uncontested and they didn't want to actually have to find out how much exactly.

* * *

**Langara – Allied Forces Headquarter**

The room was filled with the eight Generals and with the man in charge of everything. Anderson looked at the table in front of him, thinking about the last few days of intense combat the Andari Federation frontline had sustained. The first defense line was holding throughout its entire length, but it wasn't as easy as it was when he'd had to face the Jaffa on Dakara. As opposed to the Jaffa, the Ori were very adept in finding other ways to attack immediately after they would realize their previous tactic was ineffective. The use of their equivalent of the artillery was the first sign that they would change their methods until they found the right strategy or weapon that would work and his job was to counteract that possibility even before it happened. The problem was he didn't know what their next surprise would be and what else he could do to make their defenses more flexible to sudden changes, changes that were meant to happen sooner or later.

"What are our losses," Anderson asked while looking at General Felon, the man in charge of the 1st Langaran Army that was currently engaging the enemy.

"Minimal, considering what the Ori have lost. The Ori have more than fifty times the number of fatalities we had so far, but those plasma orbs have sent many to the hospital. It will take some time for them to rejoin the fight if at all possible," the General answered.

"Yes, but our intel also tells me the Ori have brought more soldiers to the planet than what they have lost. We now think there are even more than two million Ori soldiers on the planet," Anderson said really not liking that particular intel.

"Those son-of-a-bitches are also making suicide runs with bombs strapped on their chests. Our soldiers have to stop them before they can reach the trenches, and sometimes it isn't that easy," another General replied.

"As of now, our best defense is the artillery, especially when they decide to attack with larger formations. I also think this will be the first thing the Ori are going to try to change," Anderson said.

"How?" the same General asked.

"I don't know, but we've seen them use their priors just for that purpose. Thankfully we have something that can stop them, but it is only a matter of time before they start using something else with the same goal in mind. They must know the artillery is the thing that is killing them."

"And you think they will find something against it?"

"Of that I'm certain. It is only a matter of when, and not if," Anderson was thoughtful. He knew the Ori were well-versed in making powerful shields, shields that can protect their troops from probably anything that can be thrown at them. "When will they reach the Kelowna frontline?"

"Tomorrow or the day after that at the latest," the General of the 3rd Langaran Army answered.

Anderson didn't like the Kelowna front line one bit. As opposed to the Andari Federation where the terrain was full of mountains and dense forests that provided a natural defense against the incoming troops, Kelowna was mostly a prairie and that meant they had a much larger front line to protect. This was also the reason why he'd changed the plan to protect Kelowna, as it would take too many soldiers to create an effective defense through the entire length of the Kelownan border. Instead, he placed the brunt of the defense forces he had protecting cities that had been fortified, also placing long range artillery capable of firing at a distance of more than 30 kilometers. The idea was to ware down the enemy at long range, without a direct engagement by the infantry while providing defense for the cities. The cities were fortified and they would provide a very difficult obstacle for the Ori soldiers since they were filled with a lot of troops. For the Ori soldiers it would be as to assault a well-fortified castle. There was also a negative side to the idea because, technically speaking, the Ori soldiers would have the opportunity to circumvent the cities and push deeper into Kelowna's territory without having to fire a single shot, but he thought that would be impractical as the Ori would end up surrounded from all sides, with the artillery and troops that can raid them whenever they want. He thought the Ori would never send a large contingent of soldiers without first taking control of the neighboring cities, but he was also worried that the Ori would send at least smaller units to mess with the supply lines that were very important if he wanted to resupply the cities with ammunition and reinforcements whenever needed. That was the reason he decided to have smaller units on their own that would constantly patrol the main roads and other crucial points inside the Kelownan territory. He also had a lot of fast response units that would fly on a moment's notice whenever needed. And yet, all this didn't make him sleep any easier. What the Ori had just showed was only the beginning and he knew things would get much worse. The only real hope was for Jack to push forward with their plan to get rid of the Ori warships in orbit as the only way they could win against them. He knew that, since the Ori apparently had an endless supply of soldiers, the only way to stop this was to destroy their ship on the ground that was constantly receiving more troops every day. He only hoped the Asgard would soon finish with whatever work they still had in the Andromeda galaxy so that the planned attack could finally begin.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aboard Gerak's ship**

This wasn't his year, of that he was certain. When he had lost his place in the council at the hand of Teal'c and Bra'tac, the traitors of everything the Jaffa stood for, he thought it had actually been a blessing. He would have finally started fighting them as Jaffa were meant to fight, instead of what they had done so far, bickering all day in a small room. It was pathetic.

When the Ori had contact him, he thought his prayers had finally been answered. He thought he finally had what he needed to win, but then everything went south. He lost valuable ships on battles that should had been won, and even his most loyal warriors had betrayed him, surrendering to the Tau'ri forces and in the process humiliating him in front of many loyal Jaffa. He needed to win and he needed it badly if he wanted to show the Jaffa that he was the right person to lead them to a brighter future, but the Tau'ri had tricked him again using despicable tactics and instead of winning, he'd lost even more ships. The Ori had also sent a prior, as they weren't happy with him and the prior punished him by stripping him of his powers. They had told him how he would have to prove he deserves to be a prior. Those idiots had stripped him of his powers and he had lost even more support. Now even those who believed in Origin were going against him. He tried to fight and win back what he'd lost, but the FJN had quickly recuperated and had taken the initiative, probably with the help of his archenemy the Tau'ri, and he wasn't strong enough to fend off such a force anymore. The Ori had also stopped helping and his forces had been turned into rubble, with less than two dozen ships still at his disposal.

Regretfully, there was nothing else he could do, except to flee and try to rebuild what he had lost somewhere else. It was degrading to end up like the Goa'uld had ended, but there was nothing he could do without the support of the Ori. Then he thought how not everything was yet lost. The only thing he needed was to find a planet that wasn't close to the former FJN territory and that had enough humans on it. Humans that he would turn into slaves and who would fuel his war machine once again. He would then spend probably a year or even two rebuilding and preparing and when he felt once again ready, he would return and show those traitors who is the rightful leader of the Jaffa. In that time, he thought the Ori would be of much help, as they would have most certainly weakened the Tau'ri and his allies. Then, he would return and sweep through their territory and without too much effort destroy whatever is left of them.

From the various reports he had read from the time Teal'c had been part of the SG-1 team, he knew there was a few planets with many humans on them and some were more than twenty thousand light-years away from the FJN territory. A perfect place to start over, he thought.

The twenty Ha'taks exited hyperspace only 30 light-seconds from the third planet in the system, speeding towards it as fast as the ships were capable of. He was glad to see the planet had billions of humans on it. It meant they would be able to provide him with the fleet he needed much sooner than he thought it would have taken.

The only problem was that the Aschen weren't such an easy prey.

* * *

**Thanks for reading this story and please don't forget to write a review.**


	15. Chapter 15: New Dawn

**Author's notes:** Here is the next chapter of the story. I'll write more at the end of the chapter.

**daemoneyes:** I already started to wonder if just everybody who's reading my story didn't have anything to ask. I'm glad at least someone is asking some questions. That said, I'll give you the reasons why I used such time lines for what you called massive projects. The first problem comes from the number of gates in the galaxy. You wrote ... _lets say 100.000 gates. _Why? The show never said how many gates there are, and the only two episodes that could hint on the number are the one on Abydos with the addresses collected by the Goua'uld written on the walls inside the pyramid, and the second is when Jack stuck his head where it didn't belong and got the Ancient download the first time. He then inputted the addresses in the SGC computer. Even if he was able to input one address every ten seconds, it would have taken him weeks to input a 100.000 of them, which means he inputted maybe a few thousand new addresses at the most. From this I came up to maybe ten thousand gates per galaxy as a reasonable number. This is also the reason why I wrote this sentence in Chapter 7... _Every team could finish five or maybe six planets every day, but there were thousands of them around the galaxy..._

If you use 10000 gates and five or six gates fixed a day instead of one, you'll see you get a much shorter period of time. I don't think it would take more than an hour for a team to change two crystals.

For the second part of your inquiry, you are right, it is a massive job to relocate so many people to another galaxy and I never said otherwise, although, since the Wraith are starving, I think a billion people inside the galaxy is an exaggeration. With so many, they wouldn't starve. Even with 10000 gates in the galaxy, it would mean there are 100000 humans on average per planet. Still I did plan it would take years to relocate them all, especially larger populations, but this is the best plan they could come up with. Ah, yes, you mentioned the attero device as a better solution, and it probably would be a better solution, but i never mentioned the said device in my story. There are two reasons for that. The first is that this is an AU, which means what happened in the show, doesn't have to happened here and it might be that they will never find the device in the first place. The second is that, even if I follow the show religiously, putting everything that happened there in here, the attero device happened only in season five episode 10 First Contact, and we are not there yet, which means, nobody knows about its existence. If you remember, I ended chapter ten with the memorial of the attack on Earth that happened two years prior. This puts us at the end of Season 3 of Atlantis, which means even this last chapter is still far from Season 5 episode 10 and the discovery of the attero device. Maybe you had the impression more time had passed in this story, when it has been only a year and a half since Terrania was completed.

I hope this helps.

* * *

**Langara**

Months had passed since the invasion of Langara had begun. In that time, the Ori had intensified their efforts to take the planet from their rightful owners with the only thing they haven't done being the use of weapons of mass destruction. This was only because they needed more followers if they wanted to come in this galaxy in person, and using weapons of mass destruction would not help accomplish that goal. They needed to conquer the planet and the inhabitants residing on it, and not destroy it.

The allied forces had been able to hold against the constant efforts of the Ori soldiers that only on a few places, throughout the entire front-line, had been able to breach, but the nine generals in the room were more than preoccupied on how things were looking.

"The Ori have intensified their efforts on the Kelownan border. They have apparently lost their interest in breaching on the north in order to attack Tirania, "General Felon stated, not liking what this fact meant for him.

"They've lost more than three hundred thousand soldiers attacking the north side alone. Apparently they must think Kelowna is going to be a much easier target to conquer," Anderson replied, looking at Felon, the General directly responsible for defending Kelowna.

"Yes, they have almost a million soldiers here and many of the bordering cities are under constant siege," General Felon added, not liking the absurd intensity with which the Ori had been literally tossing their soldiers into the fire.

"I'm more worried about their teams constantly trying to intercept our supply lines from reaching those cities than what they are accomplishing with their senseless charges. In too many occasions they have been able to stop the precious cargos and without the ammunition we will have a lot of problems stopping their advance, especially if our artillery stops working," The General in charge of the 4th Langaran Army, the one currently engaging the enemy in those cities, stated.

"We need to reinforce Normik. I don't like the situation there," Anderson continued, thinking of one of the largest cities that were currently under siege.

"Normik? There are other cities that are in a far more precarious condition than Normik," the same General replied.

"I know, but now that the Ori are turning more soldiers on Kelowna, they will most definitely target Normik. They know they need that city. They need to establish a foothold there if they want to push deeper into Kelowna's territory."

"And what about the other cities?" the General didn't like it.

Anderson was pensive. He also didn't like what he was about to say, but he didn't have any better idea at the moment. "If they turn towards them we leave them and retreat."

"And what, we give them those cities?"

"No, we give them nothing. We use scorched earth instead."

"We use what?"

"Scorched earth is a strategy that had been used on our planet when we didn't want the enemy to gain anything while we needed to retreat from cities we couldn't defend anymore. Once they enter the city, probably glad to finally have gained a foothold, we detonate a few well-placed Naquadah charges that will obliterate the entire area. That will also make them think twice before trying to enter any other city, at least not if they are convinced we are going to simply blow them up."

"Are you serious? We obliterate entire cities?"

"Of course we do. Never leave anything the enemy can use and we clearly don't want them to have cozy homes to sleep in and even less us having to conquer entire cities on a later time. Can you imagine what a nightmare would be to take back a city after they have placed those forcefields all around it?"

The others in the room tried to imagine how much losses they would sustain while trying to retake a well-fortified Ori stronghold. It wasn't pretty and they all had to agree to that point.

After the group of Generals had reluctantly nodded in agreement, Anderson continued, "We should also increase the number of units protecting our supply lines. The Ori are bringing more troops to Kelowna and we must do the same."

"Agreed, but for how long can we keep up like this?"

"I don't know, but our intel suggests the Ori are not getting so much reinforcements through the gate as they used to. Now there are much less Ori soldiers on Langara than what there were at the beginning."

"Do we know why? I thought they have as many followers as they need back in their galaxy?"

"That was only an assumption and it could still be true. They might have problems recruiting and preparing so many in such a short time. It shouldn't be easy to convert millions of peasants practically overnight into soldiers and ship them to another galaxy with weapons in hand. There is also a chance they might think what they have here will be more than enough to conquer the planet, we just don't know, but we should be glad we are seeing some signs of them slowing down. It gives us hope."

"When will the real attack commence. I'm thinking about our attack at the Ori warships in orbit."

"I'm not sure. They are pushing the date constantly. They want to have as many ships here as possible and the Guardians, Asgard and my people are currently turning every ship available in three galaxies to converge here. I think they will be here in less than a week, but there are no guaranties," Anderson reluctantly explained the reality of their situation. "And since there are no guarantees, we should plan as if it won't be any counterstrike and prepare our defenses as best as we know how."

The group of Generals continued pushing the various pieces on the chessboard that was their planet, trying to reinforce places where they thought the Ori would attack next without weakening others too much. In the last five months the guessing work they had done had given them great results. The allied forces had been able to fend off the Ori insistent attempts to breach their defenses, but no matter how they had been able to hold the line, nobody could say there hadn't been loses on their side as well. So far, the allied forces had almost fifty thousand causalities of which almost a third had been fatalities and while the one million of predicted enemy loses is a much greater number, they knew that the tide was slowly changing as the Ori had started using more and more advanced weapons with greater successes than what it was at the beginning of the war. Anderson also prayed the fleet would come soon and finish of the Ori warships in orbit of the planet, because if not, soon, the tide would turn in the Ori's favor.

* * *

**Aschen Prime**

Inside a small room four people stood around a table, watching intently at one of the floating screens in front of them.

"Were you able to reverse engineer their ship's hyperdrive?" one of the men asked.

"We have. We can start production immediately. We were also able to increase their efficiency by fifty percent. With a little more time we could achieve even better results."

"No. You can continue working on the next generation of hyperdrives we will use in the future, but for now, having a working fleet must be our priority."

"What are we going to do with what the Jaffa told us? What about the Ori?"

"We need more than what the prisoners told us to be certain. Their story is too… improbable. And yet, they have all told us the same story. It is puzzling. We will send a few ships to find if what they are telling us is the truth, but our first objective is clear. We must destroy Earth."

"I agree. If what they have told us about them is true, we will have a much stronger opponent on our hands than what we have previously thought. We must not allow them to grow stronger."

"I still think the Ori are a greater threat than the humans from Earth."

"I also agree. If they are some kind of extracorporeal entities, we have no way of fighting them and that could be a problem."

"The Jaffa also told us they cannot enter this galaxy because there are others like them who are not allowing them to do so."

"Even more reason for destroying Earth. If the Ori succeed in converting their population, the Jaffa believe they will have enough followers to be able to come here, and we cannot allow that to happen."

"You are forgetting something. If Earth represents enough followers for the Ori to come here, then _we _are at risk as well."

"If you only look at the number of people the Ori need, then yes we are, but we would never accept any religion. The same cannot be said for the humans from Earth."

"Does this matter? Do you believe the Ori will not attack us because we would categorically decline any religion? As far as we know, the Ori kill all those who refuse to believe in Origin."

"Interesting. Your logic is sound and it merits a deeper analysis. Still, our plans should not change. We still need to prepare for the fight against Earth, but I agree. We should find more information about the threat the Ori pose to us. When we know more, we will be able to make a more informed decision of what our next step must be."

"I concur. We should also send a probe to see what kind of defenses Earth has. The probe could be sent through the gate network to a planet nearby and travel the rest through hyperspace."

"I agree. The Jaffa didn't know Earth's defensive capabilities, but if it is true they have the strongest fleet in the galaxy, it will not be easy to destroy them."

"It would not be if we were planning to attack by force. Thankfully, we have other means at our disposal."

"And you think they will not be able to counteract those as well?"

"The probability of that happening is minimal. From what the Jaffa have told us, Earth is not very advanced in such areas. They may have powerful warships that use alien technology unknown to us, but the planet is still hundred years behind us in other areas."

"And what if those Asgards decide to help them in those areas as well?"

"The Jaffa told us the Asgard have not been seen in many years. Some believe they are only a myth and that the Asgard do not exist anymore. And even if they do, they are not humans. Even for them it would be difficult to find a cure for a race with a different physiology than their own."

"When will our fleet have their hyperdrives installed?"

"It will take at least two months to produce so many hyperdrives."

"Then it is settled. We will begin our invasion of the galaxy in two months' time."

* * *

**Andromeda galaxy - Liam's ship**

A week ago, the ship Liam had sent through the spatial anomaly had returned from his long mission of exploration. The first thing that Liam had found out had been the exact location of the Senari galaxy. He was astonished to know the anomaly was capable of connecting two places so distant from one another. He had thought the galaxy in question was ten million light-years or maybe twenty at the most, but the 173 million light-years was an incredible achievement for something that apparently was capable of sustaining itself indefinitely. That was also something that made his head start throbbing every time he thought about it. He knew there were laws of physics that didn't agree with that fact. The first that came to mind was the most important law he knew off, stating in lame's terms that the Universe always tries to achieve a state of balance in which energy cannot be created from nothing as well as it also cannot disappear into nothingness. Since Liam firmly believed in that law, he didn't know how any region of space can _change_, like opening and closing a wormhole, if there is no energy to do the work. Without the input of energy, balance must be achieved. It would be like having a car, or even better yet, a working stargate, without the need for any energy source to work. It would be a great thing to have, but he knew it wasn't possible. That was the main reason why his head was threatening to explode when he looked at the strange spatial anomaly.

Liam shook his head, trying to change the train of thoughts that was leading him to nowhere and it wasn't as if he didn't have other things to worry about. The battleship he'd sent had returned with so much information that he could spend weeks analyzing the data. The ship had followed the Senari and learned where their planets were located. The news wasn't good, as the ship had confirmed what the Senari named Mial had already told him. There were many planets the ship visited with billions of Senari on them and most of those planets had an industry capable of fueling a large fleet that could pose a serious threat to any advanced race. Apparently, the Senari had barely registered the loss of ships they had sustained at his hand and he really didn't look forward to a possible engagement with such a powerful enemy, especially not with all the problems he was having with the Ori in the Milky Way galaxy.

The second part of the ship's mission was to visit the other two galaxies that hadn't yet been visited by the Senari and see if there were races there that could provide some help. Unfortunately, the ship didn't find any race that could fall into that category, at least not that the ship was able to find. The search hadn't been that thorough since a galaxy is a very large place to go through and it would have taken an absurd amount of time to perform a detailed scan of such a large place. Instead, the ship tried to find any evidence of advanced civilizations by listening for any subspace noise or hyperspace activity that would indicate the existence of a race capable of traveling or at least communicating at long distances. It wasn't a foolproof method of ascertaining if there were advanced races in those galaxies, but there was no other way to find them in such a short time. Still, the ship was able to find a few races there, some even capable of traveling the stars, but not one of them could oppose the Senari, and much less the Vargas. There was one piece of evidence that was interesting though, although he didn't know if it could be of any use. In the second galaxy the ship had visited, located somewhere around 196 million light years from the Andromeda galaxy, there was a planet the ship had stumbled upon with evidence of a very advanced race having lived there around a hundred thousand years in the past. There was also evidence the race hadn't been destroyed, but rather that they'd left the galaxy. The puzzling part was that he knew the race that lived there.

"Hello Liam," a female voice called behind him.

Liam turned already knowing to whom the voice belonged, "Aenea, nice of you to pay a visit. How long has it been, five months?"

"Ah… well, you know how it is with the higher plane and the tracking of time," Aenea replied.

"Yeah, I know."

"So… what have you been up to?"

Liam chuckled. He knew Aenea was keeping truck of his activities and that there was no real reason for asking such questions, but he decided to play along, "Oh, you know, the usual. Ori there, the Wraith somewhere else, the Senari here; you know… the usual."

"Yeah, I know. You have been really busy lately. So how is the Ori front going?"

"Actually, it is going very well."

"Are you sure?"

Liam froze. That wasn't what he thought her next question would be and there was something in the way she'd said it that made him rethink whatever he thought their current situation was. Why was she asking about the Ori and why just about now when they were almost ready to attack their warships in orbit above Langara? He also knew that she probably couldn't tell him anything directly if she didn't want to be punished by the others. He needed to treat this conversation carefully, "Yeah. We are finally ready to go on the offensive."

"Oh, that's good… isn't it?" Aenea replied.

'_Isn't it? What the fuck does that mean?' _he thought. "Yeah, and it was about time too. We can't allow the Ori to continue their attack on Langara any longer."

Aenea looked distracted for a moment, looking around as if she wasn't alone. "Oh okay… good luck then and be careful. You never know with those Ori bunch," Aenea said, once more looking around the room. "Look, I have to go. I just wanted to wish you luck, that's all. I have to go now."

Liam knew he shouldn't push it anymore, as he was now more than certain they weren't alone in the room. "Okay then, we'll see each other some other time," Liam said, but then he remembered something else he could ask her. "Wait!"

Aenea was about to disappear, but then she froze in her track, "What is it?"

"Well, do you know what happened to the Furlings?"

"The Furlings? What they have to do with anything?"

"Well, I've found evidence of their presence in a galaxy 196 million light years from here and I thought maybe you know more of what happened to them than I do."

"Not much I'm afraid. I know that, after our people started ascending or leaving for the Pegasus galaxy, they became very secretive. They had severed all connections with the Asgard and the Nox, prepared a large fleet in a hurry and simply disappeared."

"That is what I remember as well, but is there anything else, like a clue where they went?"

"Not that I know of. All that I know is that even before the plague started in our galaxy, the Furlings changed all of a sudden. Why is this so important?"

"Well, it's just that with an entire Universe to go to I end up finding a trace of their presence in a galaxy 196 million light years from here and you know very well the Furlings had always been the one with the ability of foresight."

"And you don't think this is just a coincidence?"

"Not in the slightest. The probability of me stumbling upon a planet in a remote galaxy that can be only reached by going through not one, but two spatial anomalies that I have no clue how they work is miniscule. And to top it all, to find remains after a hundred thousand years, it looks to me more like a beacon in order to find them than an astronomically improbable coincidence."

"So, where does this beacon leads?"

"I have no clue. The ship only scanned the planet from orbit for a few moments and they didn't know that what they'd found was a sign the Furlings had been there."

"You are not planning on going there to check, do you?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Don't you think you have enough on your plate here to go who knows how far through some strange anomaly that nobody knows how it even works?"

"I'm not thinking of going today Aenea and maybe I won't even be the one to go. I just think it could be important, that's all."

"Good, send somebody else instead."

"Why are you so insistent I don't go?"

"Well, I don't like where that thing leads to and, as far as we know, that damn thing can stop working at any moment, so..." Aenea paused once more as if distracted by something, "Look, I really have to go now. I'll visit some other time."

Liam nodded in understanding an Aenea disappeared into thin air. Liam felt frustrated. Why did she come here just now when they were on the verge of finally kicking some Ori butt? Was there something she knew that he didn't, and what could that possibly be? There were a lot of questions going through his mind right now and he didn't know the answer to any of them. The most frustrating thing was that he wasn't sure anymore if they should go through with the plan, or if they needed to postpone it. One thing was clear. The others were watching her and they didn't want her to tell him anything. Why that was the case was another question he didn't know the answer to.

Liam decided he needed to travel to the Milky Way galaxy ahead of schedule. Maybe he could find some other clue on what was going on.

* * *

**Langara – Normik**

Normik, a city once holding two hundred thousand souls was now home for soldiers who were trying to protect the most important strategic point in Kelowna. Kelowna was a prairie, with only a few natural defenses against an enemy marching from the west. One of those defenses was a large river, more than half a kilometer wide that was flowing from the north to the south. If the Ori wanted to cross the river without having to build rafts to transport their troops, they needed to conquer Normik. Normik was the only location in a five hundred kilometer radius where the Ori troops could cross on the other side.

If the Ori were able to cross, the entire front line would have to be reformed two hundred miles to the east, where there were cities with people still living in them. The second line of defense was also where several cannons that protected Kelowna from orbital bombardment had been placed and the Allied forces could not permit the Ori to reach them and destroy them. As a result, three entire Langaran divisions had been stationed in the city, and there was also two brigades of Terran soldiers, only recently having been transferred as a preemptive measure for the increase in Ori activity in the Kelownan region.

The fighting around Normik had been constant and the soldiers doing the fighting were tired, sleep deprived, and with an epidemic of PTSD threatening to kick in at any moment. They didn't know how many Ori followers' corpses were lying around the city and the soldiers couldn't care less. They had their own share of casualties to worry about and the number was threatening to go up with each passing day. The enemy was getting smarter, trying to use whatever trick they had under their sleeves in order to breach their defenses. On many occasions, it had been a matter of luck, stubbornness, and unwillingness to give an inch to the tide of Ori soldiers that were besieging the city from all sides. Somebody could say they were trying to commit mass suicide, others would say that even fanatics wouldn't rush into certain death so carelessly and that it must be some kind of Ori brainwashing at hand. Even fanatics must have those who think this whole thing was a big pile of bullshit, and yet only recently the attack had slowed down.

In the last six hours the Ori relentless tide of soldiers had subsided, giving the troops protecting the city some breathing time, but they all knew better than to think it would last. They knew the reason for this breathing time was only indicative the Ori were preparing something big.

The northern side of the city was where the Ori had been pressing the hardest while the south and west were being attacked only sporadically and with much less intensity. It was only to make the Allied Forces spread their limited resources on all sides. Because of it, the 1st Brigade of the 122nd Terran Infantry Division, the 1st and 3rd Brigade of the 38th Langaran Infantry Division, and two additional Armored Battalions from both, the Terrans and Langrans had been stationed on the north side in order to protect the city from the brunt of the Ori forces that was now closing on the city.

On the north, an endless mass of Ori soldiers were exiting from the woods nearby. They were already taking fire from the artillery relentlessly firing at them for the past hour, but there was so many of them that the tide looked unstoppable. As the first group of followers reached weapons range, they opened fire from hundreds if not thousands of their energy staff weapons, accompanied by the accursed blue orbs fired from hundreds handheld cannons the Ori forces were wielding. The defenders watched as the orbs dropped in their midst, exploding as they usually did, but with much less effectiveness than what had been the case in the past. The allies had realized that the orbs would have a much smaller effect if the terrain where they would drop was mud and, although reluctantly, they decided it was better to be knee-deep in the sludgy stuff than being sprayed by the superheated plasma of the falling orbs. On some occasions the mud was so effective that the orbs wouldn't even explode, but instead they would just brake, spilling their content harmlessly on the ground before eventually cooling down. Who would have thought that in time of great discoveries, new weapons, shields, armors and whatever else they could think of building, the best way to stop the Ori's artillery would end up to be mud.

No matter that the allies had found a way to partially neutralize the effect of the enemy's artillery, the Ori soldiers were still coming, every time showing something knew that would help them in their fight. And this time, wasn't the exception. As the soldiers were approaching their position, the commander of the Terran brigade noticed the ineffectiveness of the artillery in the northwest side of the approaching horde. The first thing he thought was they must have priors in their midst to protect them, but then he noticed it wasn't priors, but rather dozens of shield generators that were raising a massive dome shield impervious to everything they were throwing at it. It wasn't the first time they'd used those devices, but it was the first time here in Normik and never in such numbers as this time. Another officer once told him about those shields and how much concentrated firepower it had taken to breach it in order to destroy the shield generator. Reynolds instructed the artillery to intensify their bombardment on that section as well as instructing the few TT-1 tanks and TAFV he had to fire at the shield in an attempt to breach it. As a result, the barrage of various weapons intensified, but the overlapping shields from the various generators weren't any closer on collapsing.

The enemy stopped only two hundred meters from the trenches as they didn't want the defenders to be inside the shield's perimeter, since it would give them the ability to fire upon the generators with impunity. The Ori soldiers continued firing relentlessly while the Terran forces were unable to break the strong protective bubble.

"Guys, this is not looking good," one of the soldiers in the trenches yelled while firing at the shield without any success.

"You are always the first to state the obvious, aren't you?" another soldier yelled back, also firing at the shield when he wasn't ducking back inside the trenches.

"Well, obvious or not, I still think it was worth mentioning."

The corporal behind the two soldiers turned, "Shut up, and keep firing. If we don't break that shield we are toast. Sooner or later their soldiers will start coming at as."

"Any idea on how we are supposed to do that? I mean, it's not like our guns are doing anything to that things."

"Shouldn't we try to get inside the shield's perimeter and try to destroy the generators?"

"Are you volunteering private?"

"No sir, not particularly," the private replied, thinking about the hundreds of Ori soldiers just waiting for somebody to get outside the tranches.

"I thought you wouldn't," the corporal said, before suddenly stopping to listen something through his earpiece. "and we won't have to. We are getting reinforcements."

"Reinforcements? Who's that nuts to come here… oh shit, not them."

"Yes private, them. Do you have anything against them?"

"No," the private replied, still wary for some reason.

Another soldier was puzzled, "Who's them?"

"The Grimm Reapers."

"Who the fuck are the Grimm Reapers?"

"Did you ever play the Crisis game?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, think of the main character in the game boosted by whatever tech the Guardians have."

"Oh, that should be fun to watch."

"Trust me, it isn't. The last time they came, I didn't eat for a week. They are nuts… you'll see."

The other soldier didn't know what his friend had meant by that, but he didn't have time to think about it for too long when he heard the sound of approaching aircrafts coming from somewhere east. The small crafts passed by, only to slow down for long enough do drop several dozens of crisis- looking main characters from more than ten meter above the ground and inside the shield's perimeter. He thought those guys would brake both legs by dropping from such height, but instead they landed on their feet as if they just stepped from a small step. He also noticed the strange high pitch sound coming from the reapers' weapon once they had landed, and the next moment he also understood what his friend had meant and why they were called reapers.

A constant stream of flechettes erupted from the guns the reapers were carrying, the 3mm small bullets speeding at ultrasonic speed cutting row after row of Ori followers in half. Other reapers fired from a different weapon that fired a constant beam of coherent energy that was melting anything in its path. It didn't matter if it was metal, tree or soldier. Nothing in the beam's path remained standing. The reapers destroyed generator after generator while the few Ori soldiers that weren't dead or vomiting from the sight of their colleagues being melted or cut in half, were firing back at the newcomers. To the enemy's utter dismay the only thing they had accomplished was for the green skintight energy shield protecting the reapers to flare brightly on impact.

"The shield is down! Start shooting already," the corporal barked at the stunned soldier.

"Do we even need to?" the stunned, and a little disgusted soldier replied.

"Start shooting or I'm gonna shoot you!" the corporal spat back at the private with a threatening look in his eyes.

The private was about to oblige to his superior when he saw the grim reapers retreating behind the tranches by making 10 feet jumps look like walking. He only understood why they did that when he heard a whining sound coming from behind and when he turned to see what was making it. He saw two 80 meters long spaceships approaching on a strafing run toward their position. Since he saw how the grim reapers had already ducked in the trenches as deep as they possibly could even while having their awesome shields on them, he decided it would be a good thing to do the same.

As the two Defiants flew past the trenches, they fired several missiles at the approaching enemy. The blue plasma fire that erupted from the various detonations engulfed a large portion of the field in front of the tranches, almost threatening to reach them. The blue plasma fire melted everything in their path, with the horde of enemy followers disappearing in an instant.

"Shit! That was close," the private stated once he was certain the plasma had subsided and confident enough he could look at what had just happened.

"It had to be close private. We were about to be overrun by those bastards," the corporal replied, but even he didn't like very much the amount of heat he had felt on his skin. If it was only fifty meters closer, they would have ended up burned to the crisp, the same as the Ori soldiers did.

As they looked at the field in front of them, they saw no more followers running towards them. Those who were far enough to have been spared from the fires from hell didn't have any intention of continuing their senseless charge. It was the first time the corporal had seen the Ori followers hesitate, in a way glad to find out that they were also human, with all the pros and cons that comes with it. They were afraid and probably demoralized, and that gave the corporal hope that this war _can and will_ be won.

As they looked above to see the approaching Defiants on their way back to base, a lance of pure energy raced from the west hitting one of the Defiants in his starboard side. The shield flared visibly straining at the immense beam's strength. They were glad to see the Defiant had been able to fend of the beam, but the next moment, a second beam came rushing for the same ship and this time the shields failed in less than a second, letting the beam hit the rear starboard side of the ship. The ship banked left, losing altitude quickly. It crashed only two hundred meters from the tranches, bringing a large cloud of dust into the air.

As the dust settled, the corporal looked at what had happened. In front of the trenches a half buried Defiant was venting smoke with sporadic fires on its hull. "The Ori must have fired their main weapon from one of their strongholds fifty miles from here."

One of the crisis looking characters that had taken shelter in the same tranches the Terrans were, looked at his weapon intently before dropping it on the floor. The weapon that had fired the constant energy beam had exhausted its energy reserves and it had become useless. The weapon was powerful, but it didn't last for very long. His helmet retracted back into his neck and shoulders, revealing the Guardian that was beneath it, "We have another problem. While we were fighting their soldiers here on the north, they were able to breach the south side of the city."

The corporal looked at the man, not liking what he had just heard. The confirmation came through his earpiece the next moment, ordering them to move inside the city and try to stop the Ori followers from taking over the entire city, "He's right. I just got confirmation. All Terran forces are to reinforce the south side in order to stop the Ori advancement."

The Guardian moved closer to the Corporal, "Corporal, since my ride home just crushed, I request to join you and your squad."

The corporal looked at the weapon he had tossed on the ground, "What about your weapon?"

The Guardian showed the gun he had strapped on his left tie, "It's depleted. I still have my gun though, and if you have a rifle, I could use that too."

The corporal nodded, "I'll see if I can find a weapon for you. Permission to join my squad granted." The corporal said looking at the many dead soldiers, some even from his squad, lying around. Finding a rifle for him would not be a problem.

The Guardian approached the Corporal, shaking his hand, "Thank you, I'm Maras by the way."

"Good to meet you Maras, I'm Corporal Roberts," the Corporal said shaking his hand back.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Secret Location**

Shepard enjoyed the visit he'd made to the Genii a little too much, at least in Weir's humble opinion. Not only he'd continued going on more and more missions, but he'd also started to disregard his regular deskwork as a result. The major excuse he would come up with would be that the relocation of the millions of humans in the Pegasus galaxy was very important and that he needed to be in the field to oversee the work that was being done. Weir had to admit, it was important work, but in no circumstances so much that there was nobody else who couldn't do it.

For Weir, this was the first time she laid eyes on the planet the Guardians were using as the stopping point for the relocated humans before being transferred to a remote location in the Andromeda galaxy. The first strange thing that she noticed when she came to the planet was the massive metallic wall in front of the gate that was hiding her entire view. She didn't know what to think of the ten meters tall monstrosity that stood in front of here. Thankfully, one of the Guardians who were stationed there to check any and all new visitors informed her how this was the ultimate anti-dart weapon if the Wraith somehow found out about the planet's location and decided to send darts. He had to admit, the metallic wall _was _a very good way to stop any darts rushing through the gate as it would most certainly end up splashed on it like a bug on a windshield immediately upon exiting the gate. There was only five meters between the gate and the wall of steel and knowing how fast the darts usually exited the stargate, there was no way they could weir off or stop before hitting the ugly thing. She also noticed various turrets placed on both sides of the gate that were probably more than capable of shredding anything the Guardians deemed unwanted. The second strange thing she noticed was that except for the anti-dart weapon and the turrets, she couldn't find any other sign of defensive weapons in the entire camp. Again, the Guardian explained that there were many more safeguards on the planet to protect them in case the wraith attacked, but they were hidden as they didn't want to frighten anyone coming through the gate with too many weapons. Weir thought it would have been more reassuring for the natives of the Pegasus galaxy if the weapons were very much visible instead of being hidden. These people had spent their entire lives in fear of the Wraith and seeing guns capable of protecting them would probably serve to calm them instead of frighten them. The Guardians were more afraid their fear would be towards them as nobody would like to step to another planet only to find themselves in something reassembling a concentration camp. That was why the guardians worked very hard to make the people on the planet feel as comfortable as possible before shipping them on another planet where they would remain until the Wraith were defunct.

Weir left the Guardian to his work and went in search for John. The camp was vast and without directions from the people there she would have had a lot of trouble finding him. After, five minutes of walk, he found him, Ronon and Teyla discussing with some people that, from the look of it, had just arrived on the planet.

"John," Weir yelled as she approached the man.

John turned as he recognized the owner of the voice he'd just heard, "Elizabeth? What are you doing here?"

"I needed to speak with you and I also wanted to see what the planet looks like, so here I am."

"Oh, great. So, what do you think?"

"Impressive. There is a lot more people here than I thought there would be." Elizabeth stated as she watched people buzzing around everywhere.

"Yeah, there's a lot more people than any of us thought there would be. Even the Guardians didn't predict so many would decide to come, not so soon anyway. They thought things would start much slower and only after a lot of convincing on our part, humans from this galaxy would eventually understand it was a good idea what we are trying to do, but it looks like they have a different opinion. When the word spread we wanted to relocate as many humans as possible to somewhere safe where there was no wraith to worry about, they started coming in thousands. We barely have the time to move them to their appropriate camps."

Weir looked again at the myriad of humans present, "Yeah, I can see that. Have you already started sending people to the Andromeda galaxy?"

"Oh yeah, we sent more than a million already," John answered, also remembering something else. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Weir snapped, realizing her visit here had another purpose, "Oh yeah, there is a problem with one of your teams. Colonel Lorne informed me SGA-18 was scheduled to return home more than eight hours ago, but they haven't and Lorne is starting to worry. He's sent a team to check the planet where they went on their mission, but so far no sign of them anywhere."

John thought about SGA-18 and what their mission was. He remembered they were tasked with the relocation of the people on PX3-427, at least of those who'd decide to come, and he knew that such missions usually lasted four hours at the most. John was preoccupied.

Weir saw the worried expression on John's face, "John, I'm sure they've just been detained for some silly reason and nothing more."

"Yeah, you're probably right, but I still need to go back to Atlantis and see for myself."

"Alright," Weir said, before continuing with an accusing tone. "It is time for you to come home anyway. You do know John where your home is, don't you?"

John was pissed. She was still nagging how he should spend more time on Atlantis, "What are you talking about? I was there yesterday."

"John, you came to Atlantis to shower and change your clothes and in less than twenty minutes you were once again through the gate to who knows where. When I said you should spend more time on Atlantis, I didn't mean five minutes each day," Weir replied while they started walking toward the gate.

"Well, now I'm going to stay longer don't I. Besides, nothing is happening on Atlantis these days and Lorne is more than capable to fill in when I'm not there."

"Well, that's true. Lorne _is_ more than capable, especially since for the past month he has done your job more than you did."

Again, John felt his blood pressure rise as a result of Weir's last statement, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, it means maybe he should have been the one to get the promotion to General and not you," Weir concluded, using every way she could to piss him off, and apparently she was doing a very good job.

"Hey! I didn't ask for the job, and I didn't want it either. I was pretty happy being a Colonel, and if it wasn't for Jack's insistence, I would have never even considered taking it."

"Well, that doesn't excuse you from bailing out every chance you get. You took the job, you have to pay the consequences… and NOT Lorne. You can't make him do your work while you take all the benefits the position gives you."

"What benefits? I'm not getting paid, am I? So what benefits are you exactly referring to?"

It was true. There weren't a lot of reasons for getting a promotion these days. It usually only meant more responsibility without any real advantage. There wasn't any proverbial parking spot that would make the job more appealing and Weir was afraid that she couldn't use the 'you are in charge' card, because she knew it would backfire on her. John would most certainly reply that if he was in charge, he should be able to decide where he was needed the most.

"Well, if nothing else, I think it's not fair to Lorne. He also likes to go on missions more than filling up paperwork, just like you."

John thought about it and he had to admit, he did dump a lot of work on Lorne, "Fine, I'll spend more time on Atlantis."

Weir smiled. She knew that if nothing else works, she could make John feel guilty about what he was doing, "Good."

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Atlantis**

Upon arrival, John and Elizabeth had been greeted by a worried Lorne. He explained how the teams he had sent, had returned and they have found no signs of the team. They'd asked the villagers in the small settlement where the team was supposed to go to escort those who wanted to be relocated, but the people there didn't saw the team at all. John knew it could mean only one thing. The team had been intercepted by someone before reaching the settlement. Since the teams had canvased the area around the gate and didn't find them that also meant they must have been taken someplace else, probably on another planet. Lorne also explained that the rescue team made the same assumption while still on the planet and they'd checked the DHD to see which last addresses had been dialed. They'd narrowed the result to five possible locations where the team could have been taken, and Lorne was about to start checking them all.

It had taken almost two hours to send their next version of probes to the five possible destinations and get some results. Thankfully, the probes were much better than the MALPs. After the Terrans had finally mastered antigravity systems, it was only a matter of time before they would start building things that use such technology. The probes were one of the first, since it was much easier to send a floating probe that can fly and canvas the area more thoroughly than the MALP ever could. Once all probes had been sent to their designated planets, they waited for another half an hour and then dialed back to see what the probes had recorder. As it turned out, only two planets had something that made the people reading the data worried. On one planet, there was a Genii base and on the other the probe had registered a Wraith cruiser in orbit. John and the others in the room didn't know which one was a better choice. On one hand, the Genii were still a problem since their relationship had deteriorated even further after John told them they were relocating people in another galaxy. The Genii were reluctant to go, since they would have to leave everything they had behind, but they also didn't like the thought they could eventually be the only humans who would remain in the Pegasus galaxy. The idea of being the Wraith's only source of food was frightening and they would be much happier if things remained as they were right now.

The other option was even more frightening, as it would mean the team had been captured by the Wraith. On one thing they were all in agreement. They had been captured because the Genii or Wraith wanted the location of the planet where they were relocating people. After a short discussion they decided they would send teams on both location, but they all feared the second location, with the Wraith cruiser, was the right one. They only hoped they would arrive in time.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Liam's Ship**

Liam was pensive. He could not get Aenea's words out of his head. There was something very wrong with their plan to attack the five Ori ships in orbit, but he couldn't fathom what it could be. He thought maybe the Ori somehow upgraded their ships which would mean those five ships pose a much greater threat than what he thought, but even if it was true, the fleet the three great races had amassed was more than enough to win the fight, no matter how powerful those ships were. That made him believe Aenea warned him about something else, something much more dangerous.

As Liam continued to stare at the swirling blue light of hyperspace, William entered the room unnoticed. He approached Liam from behind, thinking he would soon realize he wasn't alone anymore. Since Liam didn't turn in the next minute or so William decided it was time to say something, "Still thinking about what Aenea said?"

Liam almost jumped hearing those words, turning to face the new arrival, "When did you show up?"

"A minute ago. So, are we going as planned or do you think we should wait and check what Aenea warned you about?"

Liam sighed, "The problem is, we cannot wait any longer. The fight on Langara is already taking its tall, and if we delay any longer it could be much worse."

"I do not agree," William stated without explaining any further.

Liam looked at William pensively, "You are right. We shouldn't disregard Aenea's warning so easily only because we don't have an answer or because the situation on the ground isn't good. She wouldn't have warned us if it wasn't important, but I still can't find anything the Ori could have done to even the odds in the incoming battle."

"That's true. What could they possibly do with only six ships at their disposal, I really don't know," William stated, also not understanding what to do.

Liam on the other hand became very still, something William had noticed immediately, "What?"

Liam didn't answer. Instead, his brain was already working on something else, "Where are we?"

William blinked twice not understanding, "We are ten minutes from the rendezvous point with the others. Why?"

"Because we are making only an assumption, one that can cost us a lot of grief if we are wrong. Give me all sensor data we have on an Ori ship, specifically the subspace noise they create when they are _not_ traveling through hyperspace."

William complied with the request even though he didn't know what Liam wanted with that information. As he retrieved the data, the large display in front of them displayed the strange subspace signature the Ori ships would make when they are stationary in space, "Now what?"

"Now, I want you to engage the stealth system and create a search grid around Langara for that pattern."

William finally understood what their assumption had been. They thought the Ori could have only six ships in the galaxy, but that wasn't a proven fact. The supergate had been closed, but nobody can be certain the Ori didn't make another one. After all, there's a lot of black holes around the galaxy where the Ori could have placed another one and if that was the case, they could have brought more ships in the meantime, "The subspace signature those ships make is very faint. Our sensors won't be able to pick up anything from more than two light-years."

"I know, but I don't think we have to go very far. They should be very close to Langara so they can reinforce the other ships in Langara's orbit the moment we commence our attack."

William nodded and instructed the ship to start circling the Langaran system, widening the circle after every turn.

For the next two hours the ship had made larger and larger circles around the system, while traveling in stealth mode as to avoid being detected by the Ori. Liam and William were already thinking they wouldn't find anything when the sensors picked up a faint signature that matched an Ori ship. Soon, they started picking up more and more, until the count reached ten Ori ships only sixteen light-years from Langara. Liam understood how badly things could have turned out for them if they attacked the Ori ships in orbit without knowing that ten more Ori ships were ready to jump immediately as reinforcement. Now the only problem was to decide what to do with the new information they'd just acquired. Liam instructed the ship to turn toward the rendezvous point where the other ships were waiting their arrival. It was time to give the Ori a little of their own medicine.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Wraith Cruiser's Location**

The wraith cruiser floated silently in space, not far from where the gate was orbiting the planet. The gate opened with the usual splash of watery like effect and a cloaked puddle jumper exited immediately, only making the slightest shimmer as it passed through. The small team onboard the ship had a very important task to accomplish. Another ship was coming, a much bigger one, but they needed the exact coordinates of the Wraith cruiser before the ship arrived. Immediately after detecting the wraith cruiser, the small ship sent an encrypted subspace signal with the ship's coordinates. Less than a minute later, an aurora class warship exited hyperspace, one five hundred kilometers from the cruiser. The newly arrived ship didn't wait. Instead, it immediately launched a small stream of drones that spread in many directions, all targeting very important sections of the wraith ship. Some drones were targeting the engines, while others targeted the weapons systems on all sides of the cruiser. The drones reached the ship, piercing through the tough exterior shell of the ship and burrowing their way through the entire length toward the other side. Once the drones exited the ship from the other side, they would turn once again, only to repeat the same task as before. Once the drones were close to extinguishing their energy reserves, they exploded everywhere inside the ship, disabling all systems the Terrans deemed dangerous to leave active. In short time, the cruiser became a floating coffin unable to escape or to fire back at the newly arrived ship.

Closing in in the enemy ship, the aurora fired from several railgun turrets at the cruiser's hangar bay doors, where the Terrans planned to storm the ship in search for their missing team. Five raptors exited the hangar of the aurora warship flying straight for the wraith cruiser and the new opening on the ship's starboard side. Behind the five raptors, two dozen F-302s also left the safety confines of the larger ship in order to provide support in case the Wraith decided to start launching darts.

Inside the hangar, the five raptors landed on various locations spreading as much as they could. One of the raptors was targeted immediately by a group of wraith grunts who happened to be there the moment the raptor had landed. As the Terran soldiers were exiting the ship, another raptor that haven't landed yet, decided it would be a good thing to show these wraiths what their miniguns can do. The copilot set the miniguns to auto targeting mode and pressed the firing button. The constant stream of bullets from the fast firing gun riddled the unprepared aliens, quickly killing them all. As the squad was now safe to exit from the landed craft, the other raptor decided it was time to land as well, but on one of the higher levels of the hangar. The hangar was massive and no raptor had landed on the same level. All squads quickly exited their respective raptors, moving deeper inside the ship on their quest to find their missing team.

Team two from the third squad was walking down a wide corridor with their leader looking intently at his motion scanner. So far there was no opposition and he was glad for it, but Williams knew it would soon change. He knew the Wraith had much less grunts at their disposal than it had been the case in the past, but the idea that there weren't any was a little too much to ask. The team went through two more corridors before picking up a faint signal from the SGA-18's subdermal implants. There was still a hundred meters between them and the motion sensor was also picking up other, more menacing, contacts. The team hurried deeper inside the ship, a few times hiding and waiting for a wraith patrol to pass them by. They were ready to engage the wraith whenever needed, but that wasn't their mission and if they could avoid fighting every single patrol, it would increase their chances of success. The second time a patrol crossed their path, they weren't so fortunate. The patrol turned straight towards them and they had no choice, but to engage them. The fight wasn't completely one sided even as they were able to ambush the patrol, but even then the Wraith didn't stand a chance. The Terrans were wearing the TCA-X1 armor that was capable of stopping most of the stunning effect the wraith's weapon had. It would take three or four hits in quick succession to incapacitate one soldier. Meanwhile, the Terran rifles were more than capable of piercing through the grunt's armor causing massive damage as they went through. There was also the fact that the Wraith looked as if they haven't fed in quite some time, many not having eaten for weeks or even months by the look of it. That also showed the Wraith were in real trouble as there were fewer humans to feed upon and the grunts were the first who would be left to starve.

A short burst was more than enough to drop the average grunt, not one of them being capable of firing more than once or twice before being downed by the Terrans. The team killed the patrol with little effort, but there was a negative side to the firefight. It had alerted all other patrols of their location and they didn't like the idea of having to fight a much greater number of enemies all at once, no matter how confident the Terrans were in their skills and weapons. The team fastened their pace to where the small gadget in Williams hand was telling him the captured team was being held. As they turned another corner, they reached a web-like door and they were clearly able to see three members of the kidnapped team in the room behind. One of the soldiers started working on the door's release mechanism until the web-like structure retracted, allowing the team to enter the small cell. Reynolds walked inside the cell, confronted immediately by one of the kidnapped team member.

"It is nice to see a friendly face sir. We almost lost hope of being saved," the man said.

Reynolds looked around, noticing something wasn't right, "Lieutenant! Weren't there four members in your team?"

"Yes sir, but Johnson have been taken more than an hour ago and I don't know where."

Reynolds didn't like it. The mission had already lasted for too long and the wraith grunts were already on their tail, "Lieutenant, can you and your man move?" Reynolds asked, seeing how they had been injured.

"We'll manage sir."

"Good, let's move to the extraction point."

While Williams and another member of his team took point, the other two helped the two more severely injured soldiers to walk. Williams immediately contacted the other teams, notifying them they had found the team except for one member. Another team replied how they had found the fourth and last member of the team, but unfortunately he'd been already fed upon and there was nothing they could do for him. As they went the same way they came, the team managed to evade the brunt of the wraith coming their way. Only two unfortunate wraiths had stumbled on their path and the team had to take care of them.

Team after team returned to their raptors as quickly as they came, the whole operation having lasted only fifteen minutes. One by one, the raptors took off, speeding outside the wraith cruiser as fast as they could. As they exited the cruiser, they found themselves in the middle of a firefight between the two dozen F-302s and the darts the Wraith had launched from the hangar bay on the other side of the ship. The fight was mostly one sided, especially since the Aurora was providing the much needed support in the form of drones, thus taking care of most of the darts even before they could reach the F-302s. Once the battle was over, both the raptors and the F-302s docked inside the large hangar bay of the aurora warship. Now that their mission was over and every spacecraft was docked safely, the ship fired from its newly installed plasma cannons at the wraith cruiser. The cannons were meant as Hive destroyers and destroying a cruiser had easily been accomplished with only a few shots from the powerful weapons.

The ship opened a hyperspace window and sped inside it, leaving the exploding wreckage of the wraith cruiser behind.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Prime**

The same group of Aschen convened once more to discuss the new information they had received less than an hour ago. As the group set around the table, one of them began, "The probes we've sent through the gate two weeks ago have confirmed the story the Jaffa have told us. The Ori have taken many planets in this galaxy, mostly those with small populations that could be easily subdued by their Priors and their soldiers."

"Is it true what they say about the priors being some kind of advanced form of humans?" another Aschen asked.

"It appears that is the case. Our probe witnessed one of the priors releasing a virus specifically designed to affect only a person with a certain DNA. The person in question who didn't approve of their religion fell ill and died two days later."

The other Aschen was curious, "Do we know how the prior managed to create such a virus? It is not easy to create a virus that targets only a specific DNA."

"No. As of now, we still don't understand how he created the virus so quickly or how the virus works."

"Have we found a way to counteract that virus?"

"No, and we don't know if we ever will. The problem is the virus is attacking only a specific person and we have no way of testing it since we don't have an adequate subject."

"This could prove to be a problem," a third Aschen replied. "It appears the Ori are an even greater threat than we thought."

"I concur. They have technology even we do not understand or that we can counteract," the first Aschen replied.

"Then we need to reassess our current plans. Have the probe reached Earth?" the second Aschen asked.

"It did," the first Aschen replied before continuing reluctantly. "It was destroyed immediately upon entering their system. From the little data the probe was able to send, we extrapolated they must have been able to detect the probe even before it exited hyperspace. They knew the exact trajectory of the probe."

The second Aschen was perplexed, "They have sensors capable of monitoring hyperspace around Earth."

"It must be technology given to them by the Asgard. This could also prove to be a problem. If we are unable to reach Earth undetected we won't be able to launch our bioweapons before it is destroyed. Did the probe manage to send data regarding their defensive capabilities?"

"The probe detected five capital ships, and several smaller ones in Earth's orbit. The probe didn't detect anything else."

"Strange? They should have more stationary platforms in orbit. At least that is what logic dictates."

"I agree, which means they have ways to hide them from our sensors."

The third Aschen was pensive the whole time. The new information they had received was making him reassess his previous believes how this would be an easy fight. On one hand, they'd just found out the Ori have more advanced biotechnology that what they have, which could pose a serious threat to them. Secondly, it appears Earth was better defended that what they'd previously thought. If the humans from Earth can detect anything traveling through hyperspace near Earth, they couldn't possibly think their attack would be successful, "As I said before, we need to reevaluate our previous plan."

"What do you suggest?" the first Aschen asked.

"Our first priority should be the Ori since it appears Earth is the only race in the galaxy that has the necessary strength to fight them. If the Ori win against them, they will have free reign in this galaxy and the probability we could win against them alone is nil," the third Aschen said.

The first Aschen looked at the man, still not understanding where he was going with this, "You still didn't provide us with your suggestion."

"We should ally ourselves with the Terrans."

"How do you plan to make the Terrans agree to such alliance? We are not on very good terms with them."

"We lie. We tell them we've changed and that we don't believe they are inferior to us anymore, but equals."

"And you think they will believe us?"

"It doesn't matter. Even if they don't believe us, they will have no proof of the contrary and they will not oppose us openly without proof, especially now that they have another enemy to fight. We will have more time to grow stronger and learn more about them and how best to fight them."

The first Aschen was pensive. His colleague was right. From what they knew about the Terrans, they would never attack them if they weren't certain they had ill intentions, "Your plan is sound, but there is a risk the Terrans could learn more about us as we learn more about them."

"It is a possibility, but still, the Ori are the greater threat and we cannot fight them on our own."

"Then we agree. We will help the Terrans fight the Ori threat and at the same time collect more data on our true enemy."

"I agree. It gives us the best chance for victory."

The other in the room nodded in agreement. The meeting had continued, discussing the details on how they planned to befriend the Terrans even after what had happened between the two human races. The plan was simple. Now that the Aschen had acquired the ability to travel through the gate network, they would attack the Ori in every possible way and when they'll have enough proof of their usefulness, they will contact the Terrans and try to make an alliance against a common enemy.

* * *

**Milky Way galaxy – Near Langara**

The mighty fleet comprised of the Terran, Guardian and Asgard ships had finally assembled only twenty light-years from Langara. The fleet was comprised of two dozens of the strongest ships the three races had at their disposal with an equal number of cruisers as support. Thor, Liam and Jack were onboard Liam's ship to discuss the final details of their attack plan.

"So, it's settled. We will keep the cruisers behind as reinforcement," Liam stated.

"Yes. If and when the Ori merge their two fleets we will call for reinforcement. It will provide us with the additional firepower to win the battle," Jack said before continuing. "It was really fortunate for us you stumbled on the other Ori ships."

"Yes it was. Even after the battle, we will have a big problem with the new gate they must have set up somewhere, but if we attacked and lost this battle, it would have been catastrophic. The Ori would then have the superior forces in this galaxy," Liam said thoughtfully.

"The supergate is not our current problem. We do not need to think about it at the moment. We must focus on the fight we still have not won." Thor said focusing the others to think on the current battle and not on what they would have to worry in the future.

"You are right. Let's win this fight and only then think on how to stop the Ori from coming here," Liam replied.

The three leaders of their separate races nodded, with Thor and Jack beaming on their ships only moments later. In space, the two dozen larger ships turned in a tight formation before opening an equal number of hyperspace windows and speeding inside them.

The fleet was traveling at full speed toward the Langaran system in order to give the Ori as little time as possible to prepare for the fight. With their advanced hyperdrives, it took them only minutes to reach Langara and only a few more to reach the fleet of ten Ori ships only twelve light-years further away. Attacking the ten unaware ships was a much better option since it meant the Ori would have to leave Langara and the protected ship on the ground if they wanted to bring all of their available ships to the fight.

The mighty fleet exited hyperspace close to the ten Ori toilet bowls that were unprepared to face the enemy. It gave the allied forces the advantage of the first move. Two Terran battleships and five upgraded aurora class warships to what the Terrans believed a warship should really look like, targeted only one of the Ori ships present in an attempt to overpower their strong shields. All weapons from all seven ships fired at the same time, focusing their cannons' destructive energy on one point. The amount of power released by the seven ships was too much for even the Ori shields. The shield collapsed and the plasma continued through the unfortunate ship, destroying it in million pieces.

The Asgard did the same, with their twelve O'Neill battlecruisers focusing on another Ori warship. The unfair punishment the ship had been put through was just too much to survive and the second warship ended in a similar way as the first one. The Guardian's four battleships did the same to the third Ori warship while Liam fired from his already charged primary weapon at the forth enemy ship. With no know shield capable of stopping such a weapon, the Ori ship's faith had been sealed even before the beam of utter destruction hit it. The element of surprise had given the allied forces the much needed advantage in order to destroy four Ori warships without taking even one hit, but the fight was not over yet and the Ori ships were now on the move.

The six remaining Ori ships began evasive maneuvers, knowing that the only way for the allied forces to destroy them was to focus several ships' fire on a single ship. One of the greatest advantages the Ori ships had was their massive power source, capable of restoring shields to top efficiency in short time. The allied forces were at a disadvantage as the massive Ori ships were capable of moving fast enough to keep them from bringing more than one or two ships to fire at the same time on a single ship. On the other hand, making evasive maneuvers was also making it hard for the Ori to line up and fire from their main cannon and all ships the allied forces had there were more than capable of taking a few hits from their cannon without sustaining damage.

The Ori must have noticed the ineffectiveness of their tactic since one of the ships turned away from the battle and opened a hyperspace window, clearly trying to flee, but for some reason the window collapsed before the ship could go through.

On board Liam's ship William smiled, "The hyperspace jamming device is working as you said it would. They cannot escape."

Liam was also smiling. He had spent a lot of time in the lab making the device. The Alterran had researched such technology a long time ago, but they had never perfected it or used it. The Alterran were a peaceful race and if somebody wanted to escape, they would let them do so. The Alterran wanted to stop an enemy and not destroy them. Now Liam thought differently. There were too many powerful enemies they were fighting to give them such an advantage and he knew there's no negotiations with enemies such as the Ori or Wraith. "Yes, and they have no chance of victory either. Let's punish that ship."

Liam's ship aligned with the utterly confused Ori ship that had just tried to escape the fight but failed. The ship's primary weapon erupted once again piercing through the enemy ship like it was nothing. The fifth Ori warship had been destroyed and the allied forces had the clear advantage. Liam turned his ship firing from the four secondary beam weapons at the next Ori ship, but alone the weapons weren't enough to destroy the ship. Apparently, the fight was still on.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Langara**

Twelve light-years away, on Langara's surface, the six Terrans and one Guardian Reaper were moving through a small alleyway. It looked as if they were in some kind of warehouse district and, from the sound of explosions, somewhere around half a mile from the south defense line that had been breached less than an hour ago. Most Terrans had been sent to the south to take care of the breach, but there were enemy soldiers already inside the city and someone had to take care of them before they did some damage. After all, HQ was only a mile from their current position and they needed to stop the Ori before they reached it.

"Where are those sneaky bastards?" private Mattison, the same private who didn't like how the Grimm Reapers did their job, asked while turning a corner into yet another empty street.

"I don't know. The last time we heard from HQ they said there was a small group of them in this part of the city," Corporal Roberts replied, not liking the fact that any attempt to contact HQ in the last ten minutes had failed. The Ori must be using some kind of jamming device to block all communications.

"Look!" Mattison whispered, looking at the intersection two hundred meters from their position at the other end of the street.

There were dozens of soldiers and one prior crossing the street and entering another allay, clearly directed toward HQ. They were hauling something big behind them.

"What is that thing?" the same private asked.

"From the radiation signature I would say it is a bomb, and a big one at that." Maras, the Guardian, answered after watching the readings his suit's helmet was displaying.

Corporal Roberts didn't like what he'd just heard, "If that's a bomb, they probably want to detonate it close to HQ."

"Then we must stop them before they reach their target," the Guardian replied.

The Corporal nodded, "Let's double back and prepare an ambush they won't forget."

The group moved quickly back through the same allay they just came, turning several times in order to get ahead of the Ori soldiers. It took them almost five minutes, but the last turn they made, put them three hundred meters ahead of the approaching soldiers. The alley was maybe five or six meters wide and it looked as the perfect place for an ambush.

"That bomb is preventing us from placing explosives. I don't want do see that thing go off by accident," the Corporal said, thinking how best to place their ambush. "Alright, the three of you go in that building and the rest of us will go in this one," the Corporal pointed at the two opposite building facing the streets. "Since our communications are jammed, I want you all to wait until you here the first shot. We must take the prior first, then anyone near the bomb. I wouldn't put it past them if they decide to detonate the bomb if they see no other alternative. So, after we take the prior, we take anyone who's trying to arm the bomb. Understood!"

A chorus of 'yes sir' was heard and they moved in the two buildings, quickly moving on the first floor. They were all watching through several of the windows facing the street as the Ori soldiers slowly moved toward their location.

The Corporal saw a few of the soldiers passing their location. They were scouting ahead, but so far they haven't noticed them. Finally the prior and the bomb had reached their position as well, and the Corporal took the shot, but the prior was faster. He must have sensed the ambush and he had raised a barrier protecting not only him, but the rest of his soldiers as well.

"Shit! This wasn't the plan!" the Corporal yelled angrily as he saw his team starting to shoot in vain at the prior and the other soldiers in the street. The Ori soldiers were also starting to return fire.

The Guardian got up on his feet, "Keep them busy. I have an anti-prior device embedded in my suit, but I have to get close to the prior for it to work."

The Guardian dropped his rifle, vanishing the next moment. Under cloak, he moved quickly down to the ground floor stopping near the entrance door. The prior was just outside, maybe five or six meters from him, but even with the cloak the priors were known to be able to sense them if he got any closer, and he didn't want him to react too soon. Maras waited patiently until he saw the prior turn to face the other side of the street. It was the moment the prior would be the most distracted. It was now or never. Mentally he instructed the suit to activate the anti-prior device and to enhance his speed as much as possible. He leaped toward the prior, crossing the five meters in a fraction of a second. As he approached the prior, maybe two meters from him, the barrier suddenly dropped. At that moment, the prior having sensed the anti-prior device, turned to face the approaching Guardian, only to receive a punch in the face that sent him spiraling to the ground. Maras didn't wait. He mentally instructed his suit to switch from enhancing his speed to enhancing his strength. He moved toward the prior with all haste, kicking him with all his strength in the guts. The prior crushed in the opposite building's wall with a loud thud. The Ori soldiers noticed what had happened to their prior, even though they couldn't see the assailant since he was still cloaked. Nevertheless, they fired in the general direction where they thought the assailant was. Maras felt the impact of the enemy energy weapon, with his cloak dropping from the impacts. He tried to raise his shield, but it wasn't working. He switched again to enhancing his speed, jumping at the first follower he saw. The next moment the follower dropped to the floor with his neck broken. In the meantime, the six Terrans were firing at the enemy soldiers from above, killing one after the other. Maras noticed one of the followers was moving toward the bomb less than ten meters from him. Again, he moved with incredible speed, grabbing the follower before he could activate the bomb. Switching again to enhancing his strength he made short work of the screaming soldier. He looked around, searching for his next victim and saw none were standing.

The six Terrans slowly came out of the building, approaching the Guardian already standing in the street.

"Are you alright?" the Corporal asked. "I saw you got hit a few times."

Maras looked at his suit with a few scorch marks on it, "The suit protected me. It takes a lot more to pierce this thing."

As the Corporal was about to say something else, his comm. unit chirped in his ear. He listened for a moment, before a smile came across his face, "The jamming system had stopped working. The Ori warship on the ground is leaving."

"Is leaving?" private Mattison asked in puzzlement.

"Yeah, it looks like our fleet had finally decided to beat the crap out of the Ori. The Ori soldiers are also retreating from Normik."

All people still standing in the street started smiling, understanding what this meant. The war on Langara was coming to an end.

More than 500 miles from Normik, the only Ori warship on the ground started to rise, quickly leaving the planet's atmosphere and joining the other five equal ships waiting in orbit. Together, they opened a hyperspace window and sped inside it, directed toward the battle that was raging only minutes of travel away.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Battlefield Location**

The Ori must have understood how the only way to even the odds was to leave Langara and bring all available ships to the fight. What they didn't know was that it was exactly what the allied forces wanted them to do. It was the reason why they didn't bring all their ships into the fight. They wanted the Ori to believe they had a chance were there never was one to begin with.

As the six Ori warships reached the battlefield, two dozen cruisers from the Terrans and from the Guardians followed closely behind, exiting hyperspace just a few seconds later and immediately engaging the enemy warships. As the battle raged in the void of space, the Ori also noticed those new ships behaved differently when hit than what it had been the case the last time they fought. Both Liam and Jack knew that sending cruisers against the Ori warships was a bad idea and that they would lose too many in such a fight. As a result, the Terrans used the massive reactor on Asura to charge not one ZPM, but ten of them with only a few percent. This few percent were going to give their ships' shields the much needed boost to survive the hopefully short engagement with the much more powerful Ori warships. Liam had no problem doing the same, and once what it would have been only a small to moderate threat to the Ori warships it become something much more deadly. The Ori tried in many ways to counteract the forty plus strong force they were facing, but their faith had been sealed the moment they came here.

One after the other the Ori ship fell under the Allies Forces relentless chase, slowly diminishing their number, first ten, then nine, eight, seven... until there was no more Ori ships fighting back. The allied forces cheered as twenty minutes later the fight had finally ended with much fewer losses than what the Ori had sustained. The Ori had managed to destroy a few ship, one aurora and two cruisers from both the Terrans and the Guardians took more than what their shields could take. Two O'Neill battlecruiser, one Guardian's battleship and several smaller cruisers also sustained severe damage and they would need to be towed back home for repairs that would take months to repair them all. On the other hand, the use of Liam's jamming device also meant no Ori warships escaped the onslaught. There was another bright side to the fight. One Ori warship had been disabled, but not destroyed.

The guardians and the Terrans had started beaming onboard the Ori ship. The idea was to capture the ship in order for Liam to study it and find some weakness that could help them fight the Ori on a more even turn. They still needed an overwhelming force to win against the strong ships the Ori had and they knew, even after this battle, the Ori were far from being defeated.

The fight on the ship had lasted for almost an hour. There had been almost two hundred Ori followers and three Priors onboard and they weren't ready to surrender. Nonetheless, the three races coordinated their effort efficiently and with overwhelming force, the enemy didn't have a chance. Quickly tagging any follower or prior, unconscious or dead, the surrounding ships beamed them into the various brigs aboard their ships, until there was no one left on the Ori ships. The three races designated several ships to tow the Ori ship as well as the damaged once to their appropriate destination where they would be repaired, while the rest turned toward Langara for the short jump.

* * *

**Milky Way galaxy – Langara**

Inside the command center, Anderson and the rest of the Generals where congratulating Jack, Liam and Thor for their success in freeing Langara's orbit and for the overwhelming victory they'd accomplished only twelve light-years away. The Langaran representatives were more than grateful, knowing full well complete victory was now only a matter of time. And yet, Anderson was thoughtful.

"We have space supremacy and the Ori followers on the ground won't receive any more reinforcement, but the fight is still far from being over," Anderson said, stopping the cheering of the eight Langaran Generals.

Jack knew Anderson was right, "I know. There are still almost two million followers on the planet and even though they are without support, we still need to take care of them… somehow."

"Can't you beam them into space or something?" Felon, one of the Langaran Generals, asked.

Anderson shook his head, "The sheer number of them is preventing us from doing something like that, even if we wanted to employee such a tactic." Anderson replied, not liking the suggestion the Lanagaran General had made of beaming two million humans into space. "The problem is that even with our sensors, we would have to carefully check every human we beam _to the brig_ in order to be sure we are not beaming one of your people. It would also take a ridiculous amount of time to tag and then beam two million people even if we use every available ship we have and we can't keep them all here for that long."

"We can predict the Ori followers will become more disorganized and since they can't receive any more food or other supplies, in time, they will also begin to starve, but we also know that most of them won't surrender even when they realize how precarious their situation has become," Liam added after Anderson.

"Which means the fight is not over, not on the ground anyway," Anderson concluded.

"Well, I still think we shouldn't spoil this victory by talking about what we still have to do. Let's enjoy our victory and leave the thinking for tomorrow, shall we," Jack interjected as he saw the change in the eight Langaran Generals after they'd realized the fight was far from over.

Liam caught Jack's meaning, "You're right. Let's leave this for tomorrow. Now at least we can be certain victory will be achieved."

The celebration continued, with the soldiers throughout the planet also celebrating what they believed was a sign of the war finally nearing its end. They didn't know that the Ori followers, even without their masters, were far from being ready to surrender and it would take a lot more time for the war to actually end.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Aboard a Hive Ship**

The Wraith Queen stood in her private room with a wicked smile on her face. She'd received the news of the cruiser having been destroyed by the Terrans, but she didn't care. The ship had accomplished the mission it had been tasked with and that was all that mattered. It took a lot of persuasion, but in the end the Terran they had interrogated told them the location of the secret planet, the one where they were gathering humans before being transferred to who knows where. The past few months hadn't been easy for the queen's conclave as less and less food could be found in the galaxy. Even more so, after the Wraith collectively decided to reunite against the enemy, they had to share their food with others. And to make things worse, their reunification didn't help one bit in the fight against the Terrans since they didn't even know where they were. It was true their forces had sustained fewer losses as a result, but the hunger was the bigger issue and not the loss of a ship or of a few hundred grunts. The hunger was killing or at least weakening many times more. But the queen believed the hunger would soon come to an end, certain the planet must have at least a million humans and so many would last her at least for a year, especially if she decided not to share them with other Wraith factions.

The strong fleet was comprised with more than a dozen hives and almost three times that number of cruisers, a force that hadn't been assembled in quite some time. As the fleet exited the designated coordinates, the queen mentally instructed the ship to send a signal that would notify a nearby hive to start sending darts through the gate and by doing so also blocking anyone from leaving the planet. The queen had also sent the signal to the other hives in the fleet to start launching darts, thousands of them, that would begin collecting humans from the planet surface while the bigger ship would take care of any opposition in the planet's orbit.

The queen noticed the enemy warships waiting near the planet, there were a lot of them, but she believed her fleet could take care of them without too much trouble. After all, she has almost three times the number of ships in her favor. As the fleet approached the planet, nearing weapons range, the ship sensors started showing more previously unnoticed targets. She soon understood what they were. The newly acquired targets the sensors were picking up were the accursed satellites the Lantean had used more than ten thousand years ago. She knew how powerful they were and how much grief those satellites had given to the Wraith in the distant past, but she also knew that, in the end, they had won against them as well. The queen ordered to target the satellites first, knowing their weapon was powerful enough to split a hive in half with one shot. She needed to take care of them as soon as possible.

As the fleet was approaching the satellites, one of the hives exploded even before they could reach weapons range. The weapons were not only powerful, but their range was also greater than theirs. Still the queen ordered to push forward, confident once they were in weapons range the battle would turn in their favor. Her fleet finally reached weapons range just as another satellite fired, splitting another hive in half as a direct result. She didn't care. They were in weapons range and soon the satellites would be no more.

The vanguard of the wraith fleet opened fire at the massive satellites, only to be stopped by a strong shield protecting each of them. This was something new, something the satellites didn't have ten thousand years ago when they'd attacked Lantea. At that point, she knew their numerical superiority didn't mean as much as she thought it did.

While the battle between the large satellites and the Wraith capital ships raged, the thousands of darts were reaching orbit. Suddenly, more satellites started popping up from nowhere. They were much smaller than the large once, but there were in much greater number and clearly designed to take care of smaller targets. The satellites activated their point defense lasers, the lasers firing at the approaching darts with incredible speed and accuracy, picking dart after dart with incredible ease. One shot meant one less dart, and the satellites were firing their invisible ray of death at least twice every second.

More than half of the darts had been destroyed even before they could enter the planet's atmosphere and to make things worse, they continued firing even on those darts that were already through. As the darts continued further down, approaching the camps with the largest concentration of humans, they detected several massive shields springing to life. The shields had encompassed the various camps with humans in them and, as it wasn't enough, streams of drones sped toward the sky and toward the approaching darts.

The queen watched as all of her darts had been destroyed even before reaching the ground. She cursed, but she didn't do it just because of the darts. She had other things to worry about. As well as the satellites, among the defensive fleet, the five auroras were also different from what she could recall from the last time she encountered one of those monstrosities the Lantean had used. In the past, the ships had a large number of deadly drones that would wreak havoc on the Wraith ships, but the number was never infinite. Sooner or later the ships would expand their reserves and become useless, as they had not possessed any other weapon capable of destroying a Hive. Now, things were different. The ships had massive plasma cannons capable of inflicting a ridiculous amount of damage to the Wraith Hives as if the weapon had been purposely created to fight them. To put more salt to the already infected wound, the ships were also spitting nuclear missiles as if they were confetti. The queen cursed again, knowing that the darts she had recklessly sent to their deaths would have made a perfect screening force against those missiles and without them the fleet's main weapons could not stop them all. Cruiser after cruiser started exploding in an incredible display of destructive power released by the small but deadly devices. Then it suddenly donned in the queen's mind. They were screwed. The planet was more than adequately protected. So much that even if she had twice as many ships at her disposal, the end result would have been the same. She instructed the remaining ships to enter hyperspace and flee as soon as possible. She still wasn't prepared to die in a futile battle. Several Wraith Cruisers opened a hyperspace window, only to witness the same window closing before they could pass through. The queen screamed in anger and frustration as even a cowardly move such as this wasn't an option anymore.

It was the last thing she would ever do as a lance of antiprotons pierced her ship, splitting the Hive in half and killing every Wraith onboard, her included.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Unknown Location**

Behind Adria, two priors were lying dead on the floor. She had to punish someone for this last failure and the two priors were the ones who came to her with the news. Somehow the Terrans and their allies knew about their ships waiting nearby and instead of them having the element of surprise on their side, the Terrans somehow turned the tide in their favor. All ships had been lost and since there weren't any witnesses alive the only thing she knew was that the enemy had overwhelming forces at their disposal, something one of the ships had managed to send before being destroyed as well as the others.

When she first came to this galaxy she thought this would be an easy assignment, an assignment she would accomplish in less than a year. Instead, they had spent already more than a year dealing with this galaxy I one way or another and their situation was worse than when they first came. She didn't care much for the loss of countless followers on the planet they call Langara, or any losses in life anywhere else. They were expendable after all. The thing that she did mind losing though, was warships. The loss of sixteen ships today, together with the two before that can't be replaced so easily, was a sore point. She knew those who worked on the construction of the ships were mere peasants and with no modern infrastructure to help build ships the production was slow. They never thought it would have taken so many ships to win against a galaxy with such primitive races, but she now knew better. She would need to change a few things if she wanted to win.

Adria turned, hastily leaving her room and the two dead priors on the floor. She walked through countless corridors encountering other priors who had immediately realized in what mood she was in. They apparently had decided how not speaking to her was the best way if they didn't want to end up like the other two priors who had brought the bad news to her. She finally reached a large room in which a lonely stargate was standing. She needed to contact her brothers and sisters in their own galaxy. She mentally instructed the gate to connect to the distant galaxy and on the other side, the Doci responded to her call. Only it wasn't the Doci, but it was the Voice of the Ori who were using the Doci as a vessel.

In front of Adria, the holographic image of the Doci appeared, but she also knew with whom she was really speaking.

"_**You have failed us Orici**_," the holographic Doci spoke with a distorted voice.

"I have my brothers and sisters. The Terrans somehow knew about our ploy and they used it to their advantage. I do not know how they could have known," Adria replied calmly, but inside she was all but calm.

"_**The ascended Alterran warned one of their own,**_" the Doci replied.

Adria was stunned for several reasons, "How is it possible there are Alterrans still alive in the lower plane?"

"_**One has descended**_**.**"

Adria was thoughtful, "And he had help from the others? I thought they would never interfere with the lower plane, not even if one of their own was involved?"

"_**There is change**_**,**" the Voice of the Ori replied cryptically.

"Change, what kind of change?" Adria asked, clearly preoccupied.

"_**There are those who do not believe in what their majority believes.**__"_

Again, it was another bad news she really didn't need to hear. As the loss of almost all of her ships wasn't enough, she now has to worry about some rouge ascended beings that were more than ready to disobey the others' orders and help one of their own in the lower plane. "I still think we need to destroy the humans from Earth. They are the only one who can oppose us in this galaxy."

The Doci stood still for a long moment, "_**They need to be conquered, not destroyed… and they are not your real enemy. He is.**_"

Adria was pissed. A single wannabe Alterran hero was now her main threat, "Then I will kill him first."

Again the Doci took his time before replying, "_**Careful. He is… different.**_"

"Different how?"

"_**The Ori do not know… the Alterrans do not know… he does not know.**__"_

That strange sentence made Adria's head almost explode. Something that no ascended being knew was unheard of. They knew practically everything, and the part where he as well didn't know was also confusing, almost bordering with the ridiculous. He doesn't know he is different and no ascended being knows how, but at the same time they are warning her to be careful.

"Are we certain we need to conquer Earth?" Adria asked, thinking of the difficulties she would have to face to conquer and then convert Earth to their religion.

"_**We need billions to be certain. We do not care where. Find them and you can destroy Earth.**_"

"I will. Where can I find this Alterran?"

"_**We do not know. The Alterrans do not allow us to see.**_"

Adria didn't like that fact, but it was to be expected. Maybe the Alterrans were against helping the lower plane directly, but they were doing a great job of stopping the Ori from coming here. Many had tried, and only few had returned.

Adria continued to ask the Voice of the Ori for more information, but she received none that she could use. The Voice promised reinforcements would eventually arrive, but she knew it wouldn't be as much as she would like and not so soon. They had just lost more than three million soldiers on Langara and all of their equipment and no matter how easily their weapons can be built, it isn't so easy when you need to build millions of them. The situation with their ships was even worse. As of now, she had a pitiful fleet of only three ships in this galaxy and there was not even one ready to be shipped here from their own.

As Adria continued thinking about what to do, a prior came in her chamber bearing more bad news. Two more planets under their control had been attacked by the Jaffa. A third one had also been attacked, but it wasn't the Jaffa. Instead, some kind of flying machines came through the gate and started shooting indiscriminately at their soldiers. Eventually, the prior on the planet had to escape as more and more machines kept coming through the gate while the number of followers was diminishing rapidly. He took the opportunity once the gate had to shut down after 38 minutes to dial another planet. The machines were incredibly effective as they had a shield capable of protecting them from a lot of punishment and its energy weapon was more than capable of killing a follower with one shot, and the machine never missed. Adria didn't know who had sent those machines, but she knew it wasn't the Jaffa. They didn't possess such technology. She thought about the Terrans as they could have built something similar, but again she believed they weren't the one sending them since they'd never employed such machines on Langara. They were losing planet after planet and there was nothing she could do to change it and this last attack it meant they had another enemy to worry about, an enemy she didn't even know who they were.

Adria had to admit to herself the cruel reality of her situation of what she once believed it would be an easy campaign. She was on the run.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Tantalus**

Tantalus, once a barren planet with nothing to show for was now bustling with life. Now on the planet, there were four distinct races working together, trying to achieve a very important goal, the creation of the Second Great Alliance. After the initial talks had begun almost a year ago, the four races had to constantly move the date the Alliance would finally be formed. Wars tend to do that.

As much as they wanted it, there was never the right time. The Wraith, the Senari and of course the Ori were the reason why the signing had to be postponed several times. But now things were different. Now, there was nothing stopping them from finally forming the greatest alliance in the last five million years.

The construction of the massive complex with four distinct sections in order to accommodate all four races had been complete for almost five months and the planet now had more than twenty thousand inhabitants from all four races working together on a daily bases. The planet had also become the center were the four races would learn from each other. For that, a large Academy had been built in the middle, so that the Terrans, Edenians, Asgard and Nox could share their knowledge and history freely. Inside this Academy, in one of the largest halls, the signing was going to take place today.

In orbit of the planet, several hyperspace windows burst into existence in order for the many ships from all four races to revert into normal space. Liam's ship, followed by two Guardians Battleships, was the first to come out, quickly followed by two Asgard ships, the Enterprise and a bulky looking ship belonging to the Nox. They all pushed slowly until they reached orbit above the large complex.

Inside the Academy, several bright beams of light deployed the four councils from all four distinct races. Introductions started among them since many members had met today for the first time. Slowly, Jack, Thor and Liam moved to one side of the hall to discuss a few things while the rest continued the introductions.

"So, we are finally here," Jack said.

"Indeed. It had taken more than we thought, but we are finally here," Liam replied.

"Yeah, well, let's just hope will have enough time to enjoy it," Jack replied, knowing that this breathing time wasn't going to last forever.

"Always the pessimist, aren't you," Liam retorted to Jack.

"I like to think of me more as a realistic person," Jack said.

"I think we will have the time to celebrate. Even the Ori cannot recuperate so quickly after what we accomplished a three weeks ago." Thor said.

"I think that too. Losing sixteen ships in one day, Adria must be turning green right now," Liam added, liking the mental image he just had.

"Yeah, and the Jaffa are also doing a great job, cleaning up planet after planet of any Ori followers. With the anti-prior weapon we gave them, they don't have to worry about the priors either," Jack said.

"What about Langara?" Thor asked. The Asgard did their part in space, but their involvement on the ground was nonexistent, hence the question.

Jack sighed, "Well, we destroyed all Ori strongholds on the ground from orbit, and as predicted, the follower have scattered all over the place. They are disorganized, demoralized and with only a few priors still on the ground telling them what to do. In short, it's a mess."

"Are they still attacking the Kelownan border," Thor asked.

"A few times they tried, but nothing major. They are mostly retreating, which means we are the one who'll have to go to them if we want to bring order on the planet," Jack replied.

"I don't think major engagements will be a problem since we now have air superiority. I'm more worried about the many followers that are scattered in the forests. It is going to be a difficult task finding them all," Liam added, thinking how large concentration of Ori followers can be quickly identified and taken care of from the air, with the ground forces only having to mop up what would remain afterwards. The problem was going to be searching through the woods for small units.

"I also heard you had a major battle in the Pegasus galaxy?" Thor asked, referring to the attempted attack at their staging planet.

"Well, I don't know if I would call it a major battle. It looked more like bugs splashing on a windshield," Jack replied.

Liam chuckled, "Yeah, that wasn't one of the brightest moments of the Wraith. Even if we wanted it, it couldn't have gone better."

Jack turned to face Liam with a thoughtful expression, "What do you think about the sudden and total disappearance of the Wraith?"

"I think they have gone into hiding. Probably most of them must be in hibernation by now, since there is not a lot of food to go around. Almost all planets with smaller populations have been relocated to the Andromeda galaxy, and the planets that have a more dense population are fewer, thus easier to defend.

"Yeah, although I still don't like the fact that larger populations have decided not to leave the galaxy. The Genii, Sion, Manarians, Daganians, Taranians and who knows how many more have all decided to stay. Since we are providing protection to their planets, they don't feel the need to leave," Jack said, not liking that fact very much. It would have been much easier if they all went to the Andromeda galaxy.

"Jack, don't worry about it. There will always be those who'll take advantage of our help, but we have more than enough ships now to help them, and in time we can even place some defenses around their planets," Liam said.

"The Asgard are also prepared to help in that regard. We now have our complete infrastructure rebuilt, and more is being constructed every day. Soon, there will be no race that can face us in battle and live long enough to tell the story, except maybe for that unknown race Liam mentioned," Thor finished while looking at Liam.

"Yes, the Vargas. I wish I know more about them," Liam said with a somber tone.

"Did you contemplate the possibility of sending a ship to find out more about them?" Thor asked.

"I did and I decided against it. I would have to send a ship through the central anomaly in the Senari galaxy, and I fear it could tip off the Vargas, and we are still far from being ready to face them, at least if my dream is any indication of wait we will have to face. I would also like to solve the Senari problem before the Vargas come here. They could be of great assistance to us if they are finally free from their enslavement. The Senari still have a larger industry than what we have, not to mention the thousands of ships they already have."

"And tipping of the Vargas while we are far from having solved the Ori problem is not something I would like. If Liam's timetable is correct we still have years before the Vargas show up. It would be nice to end the wars we are already fighting before that," Jack added.

"I agree," Thor said pensively. "How do we plan to accomplish that task? The Ori cannot be destroyed, and the losses they have sustained, they will be eventually replenished."

"Didn't Merlin give you something that could help in that regard?" Jack asked Liam.

"He did, but so far nothing conclusive I'm afraid. There is some research he had done on how to destroy ascended beings, but I have to admit, I don't understand the theory behind it to finish his work. When Merlin descended, he must have taken all the knowledge on the subject he had as an ascended being. Something I hadn't done when I descended," Liam concluded.

"So, it means that what he gave you is useless?" Jack asked.

"I wouldn't go as far as call it useless, but it will take a lot of time and effort to understand what he was trying to build, and even more building it," Liam said.

"If you need any help, you just need to ask," Thor said.

"Thank you Thor, I will," Liam said before turning to face Jack with a questioning look, "How are things going on Earth? Has the problem with the Chinese been solved, or is still active?"

Jack sighed, "Oh it's been solved alright."

"Meaning?" Liam asked puzzled. He knew the only satisfactory solution to the problem was for the Chinese to finally join the Terrans Alliance.

"Well, China and the countries in the Terran Alliance have come to a satisfactory solution that will alleviate the tension on the planet, but it will give _me_ more headaches," Jack said, before continuing. "China asked the Terrans Alliance to help them establish an off-world colony, and they have agreed."

"They agreed?" Liam asked.

"Yup. The President explained to me that this is the best way to escape WWIII. We help them establish a colony on a nearby planet, and we build them a ship they'll use to ferry people. China then has the ability to expand and explore the galaxy even though not directly from Earth and they are fine with that. The countries inside the Terrans Alliance are also happy because they get the Chinese of their backs, no matter that we the Terrans get them on our backs as a consequence."

"I can imagine. You'll have to monitor their new colony constantly, watch what they bring home on a regular basis and most importantly you'll have to watch how they interact with other races out here."

"That's exactly my problem. There are rules the Chinese have signed that limits what they can and can't do, like they can't colonize other planets with sentient life forms on them, but I know there will be problems there, and the thought of checking every ship they'll eventually build when it comes back to Earth will only make more troubles for us. If we don't check extensively their cargo every time they reach Earth, there is a good chance they'll bring something they shouldn't, but we all know how happy and cooperative they are going to be if we have to toss around their entire cargo every time."

"This is a problem, if the Chinese start a war with another race, there is no way you won't be pulled into the conflict. After all, your mandate is to protect the entire planet, China included," Liam concluded thoughtfully.

"Ah, it doesn't matter now. We need to celebrate what this day means for us and leave the worries for another time," Jack said, thinking that there will always be some problem they need to worry about, but today should above all be about the formation of the Second Great Alliance.

"You're right, and apparently it is time to go inside and begin the ceremony," Liam said, looking through the large doors inside the conference room where everybody else except them was already seated and awaiting their entrance.

Thor, Liam and Jack looked at each other. With a slight nod and smile, they together went inside the large conference room, with the door closing behind them.

After many hardships all three races had to endure, with the Asgard finally solving their genetic problem, with the Terrans finally taking their place as the Fifth Race, and with Liam finally being able of clearing the many mistakes the Alterrans and Lanteans had left behind, they had finally reached a milestone of historical importance that will change the future of the Local Group of galaxies forever.

Today, the Second Great Alliance had finally been born.

* * *

**End of Book One**

* * *

**Author's notes:** This is the end of the first book, with the Second Great Alliance finally being formed. I think is a good place to end a book with the Ori and Wraith beaten, but not yet defeated.

The next book "_Stargate: The Second Great Alliance"_ will probably start some time after the summer, but I can't be certain. The story will start with events more than a year later, maybe even two years after this book events. After all, there's not much to write about in peace time, isn't it.

For now, this first book will remain flagged as incomplete. I would like for you to write me some reviews about this chapter as well as the entire book, comments, questions or ideas, big or small, on what should follow. Then I'll answer all questions in the next chapter and think what ideas I can put in the next book before setting this story as complete.

I'm also planning on posting a sort of an Intelligence Report with all the races and their assets in it. It is a file I use to keep truck of races so I don't forget about them and I see no reason why not to publish it. I just need to update a few things before I do. I also don't know if I'll post it as a chapter or as a separate story. Maybe I'll rather post it as a separate story since there will be more of them as the story goes.

I hope you've enjoyed this first book, and I hope you'll continue reading about Liam's adventures in the next one.

**Thanks for reading my story, and please leave a review.**


	16. Chapter 16 : Intelligence Report

**Q&A:**

**daemoneyes:  
**1. The Aschen will play a role in the second book with their intention being exactly what you said.  
2. I never intended to use the Anti-Ori weapon. I never was a great fan of last minute magic solutions.  
3. about the Vargas, you are not even close to who they are. Their story will span until the end of book three.  
4. Maybe, I already wrote a lot of the second book, it's just not polished yet at the moment.  
5. Liam will progress at a steady pace until the end of the saga  
6. The point of freedom of will versus benevolent dictatorship is a good one, but it is difficult to put it in the context of the Vargas since they have enslaved the Senari only to use them as foot soldiers to commit genocide on other races who didn't even reach the necessary level to defend themselves.  
7. The Vargas won't turn out to be the Furlings, but it will be explained who or what they are.  
You're right, i have already introduced six galaxies at the beginning of the second book, and it is not easy to work out so many, but you don't have to worry about me not finishing the saga. I've already wrote more than 100,000 words of book II, which should be around 1/3rd of the entire book, and I've already wrote the end of book two and the end of the entire saga, something I like to so I always know where I'm going with the story. Then i usually end up changing them somewhat when a reach them, the same as it happened for the first book ending.

**chain reader: **well, i don't know about my naughty mind, but English not being my first language has definitely something to do with this. Thanks for this, especially since after you mentioned it, I stopped writing '_breathing ground_' throughout the entire second book.

**guest: **thanks, i'm planning to write much more. I think the second book will be even longer. I still don't know about the third.

**kreep13: **The idea was to constantly introduce new enemies so there is no pause, and yes, most races will be wrapped up in the second book, leaving the Vargas as the main threat for the third book. A lot of enemies in the second book, and a few I still haven't mentioned.

**StargateFFWriter:** As I already answered through PM, the Ori are very proficient in Aerial combat and they have some nasty fighters while the Langarans have old transport airplanes. They have much better chance on the ground and you also need airports for the airplanes to land, something that isn't always available.

**QP: **you do that

**Kaylen Cooper: **I promise I'll try to split the text as much as I can so it's easier to read.

**Guest: **I'm glad to hear my story can keep up somebody up all night. It happens to me too. When I find a story that i like I can't wait to see what will happened.

**Author's note: **Having answered to your reviews, now I need to say something about the rest of this chapter. First, it looks like I'm unable to write anything that has less then 10000 words in it, even though in this particular case I have really tried. Sorry about that, but when I started adding race after race with all the ships they have it soon build up to a pretty large report. Also, I apologize if you find errors inside, but at the end I was slowly losing patients with this report, especially after I uploaded the Word document and the conversion changed the spacing in it. I was so pissed. It took me another day to make it as it was.

Anyway, frustrations aside, there are a lot of ships and data about them in this so called Intelligence Report. Even though the data is a complete figment of my imagination, I did try to get the numbers right. First, I used one episode where Thor said that the Beliskner has a power source of 4 Petawatts, then I tried to calculate the shield strength that it would take for the Daedalus to survive a solar flare like it happened in an episode of Atlantis and also to survive a Mark IX. Surprisingly, all calculations I made came up very close for all three cases. Strange.

The document has also terms with description and a list of races all sorted alphabetically so that it's easier to find something.

I also have to mention that this document contains a few spoilers, things I wrote in the second book where I explain some new tech the main characters have come up with and the future ships that will show up eventually.

I also introduced a stardate system, the same as in star trek, just with the starting year not being in the 24 century, but rather the year the Second Great Alliance has been formed. If you don't want to try converting using an online stardate calculator, just keep in mind that 1000 means one Earth year. This system of measuring time will be used throughout the entire second book.

That's it from me. I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

**Intelligence Report**

**Stardate:** 859.475 (November 10th, 2008 17:00)  
**Source:** Terran Intelligence Agancy (TIA), Guardians Intelligence Agancy (GIA), Asgard High Council  
**Classified:** Top Secret  
**Description:** The purpose of this document is to evaluate the current state of the region of space where the Second Great Alliance (further referred to as SGA) resides. All major races are listed inside the document, with their current government type, social parameters, assets they currently possess or it is assumed they possess, and possible threat assessment towards the members of the SGA.

* * *

_Terms and their description given in alphabetical order_

* * *

**AAL **-** A**blative **A**rmor **L**ayer - Self-repairing by spreading nanites to damaged areas  
**AB** - **A**ntiproton **B**eam – used in the Lantean satellites  
**ABS **–** A**sgard **B**eaming **S**ystem  
**AIC** – **A**rtificial **I**ntelligence **C**ore- new system under development to facilitates access and control of complex systems like Atlantis and capital ships  
**APB** – **A**sgard **P**lasma **B**eam – new weapon under joint development by the Asgard and Terrans.  
**ASNDS** – **A**dvanced **S**ubspace **N**oise **D**etection **S**ensors used for both, short and long range. It is the only way to detect anything at long range since all other sensors like radar are susceptible to relativistic effects. (What radars detect one light year away are emissions that happened a year ago. Not much use for that).  
All energy emissions in both, normal space and hyperspace leave a trace in subspace called noise. The sensors are able to detect known patterns in subspace and with the help of very powerful computers being able to extrapolate what it was. Since signals through subspace travel faster than light, such sensors are not influenced by relativistic effects.  
**C – C**oefficient used to determine the minimal amount of energy a shield will lose when hit by an energy weapon. The coefficient is not constant and his value is higher when a shield is hit by specific weapons meant to drain its energy or if the weapons strength reaches a critical point where the shields generators must divert extra power to a single point in order to prevent the weapon from piercing through.  
**CS – C**ruising **S**peed – a ship can travel at this speed indefinitely without the risk of burning the hyperdrive.  
**D – D**urationof a beam energy weapon  
**DAP **– **D**ispersive **A**rmor **P**lating – capable of dispersing the weapon's energy on impact. Currently, only Liam's ship is known to have this type of armor, mostly because it is incredibly difficult to make.  
**DBR** - **D**ual-**B**arrel **R**ailguns – Terran weapon against fighters and other smaller vessels. It has the highest rate of fire of any other known weapon and it is capable of expelling 1 kilogram slugs at 850km/s.  
**DPR **- **D**ual **P**lasma **R**epeaters – attempting to reverse engineering the Kull Warrior's weapon, the Terrans are trying to make an incredibly powerful weapon for their capital ships and fighters. No other plasma based weapons comes even near the fire rate of the repeater. It is still in its research phase.  
**ECM** – **E**lectronic **C**ountermeasures  
**ECCM** – **E**lectronic **C**ounter-**C**ountermeasures  
**ENIG** - **E**nhanced **N**eutrino **I**on **G**enerators – research of the next generation of power source done as a joint project between the Asgard, Guardians and the Terrans  
**FR** – **F**ire **R**ate  
**GD** - **G**ravitic **D**rive is a form of propulsion system that instead of a reaction driven acceleration, achieves the same by creating a directional gravitational force. Previously used only by the Asgard and the Goa'uld, now the Terrans see the benefits of such propulsion engine as it gives incredible maneuverability.  
**MT** - **M**aneuvering **T**hrusters – helps steer ships.  
**HDS** - **H**yperspace **D**isruption **S**ystem - Ships are unable to open a hyperspace window inside one light-hour from an active HDS.  
**HSS** - **H**yperspace **S**tealth **S**ystem – Enables ships to travel through hyperspace undetected even from the most advanced sensors by creating an inverse subspace signature that effectively negates the signature the hyperdrive produces. The limitation of the system is that ships must travel at only a fraction of their max speed.  
**ID** - **I**nertial **D**ampeners  
**IE** - **I**on **E**ngines  
**IF** - **I**nternal **F**orcefields – used on ships to protect or seal certain sections of the ship.  
**IMC** - **I**ndustrial **M**atter **C**onverters – capable of building practically anything if there is the right materials in storage. Only limitation is that they cannot manipulate the quantum state of subatomic particles needed when building devices like for example Merlin's mantle.  
**IGH** – **I**nter**g**alactic **H**yperdrive – not only a fast type of hyperdrive, but also capable of using it at such speed for prolonged time, allowing the travel to other galaxies.  
**ISF** - **I**nternal **S**uppression **F**ields – Asgard system capable of suppressing explosions aboard ships  
**ISH** – **I**nter**s**tellar **H**yperdrive – much slower version or unable to sustain the needed speed to cross the void between galaxies in any reasonable amount of time.  
**IT** - **I**nternal **T**ransporters  
**KE **- **K**inetic **E**nergy – energy a railgun slug has when fired.  
**LPS** - **L**egacy **P**rotection **S**ystem – devised to prevent their most advanced tech on their ships to fall into the wrong hands.  
**LTSS** - **L**ong **T**erm **S**upport **S**ystem – a more advanced version of the Terran previous system, capable of operating with less energy consumption and for longer periods of time.  
**MPI** – **M**inimal **P**ower **I**nput needed to sustain a shield indefinitely. If the power flow is less than this value the shields will eventually collapse.  
**MRR** – **M**ax **R**echarge **R**ate defines how much power the shield generators can receive. Sometimes, even though a spaceship has very powerful generators, it doesn't mean the shield generators can replenish what they've lost at the same rate. It usually occurs when the ship uses a ZPM that can deliver more energy than what the generators can take.  
**MS** – **M**ax **S**peed – a ship can travel at this speed for only a short period of time without the risk of burning the hyperdrive, usually around one or two hours.  
**N/N** – **N**aquadah/**N**aquadria  
**NI** – **N**aquadria **I**ntermix defines the ratio of Naquadria used in the reactor.  
**NIG** - **N**eutrino **I**on **G**enerators – Asgard power unit  
**PC** - **P**lasma **C**annon  
**PDL** - **P**oint **D**efense **L**asers  
**PO** – **P**ower **O**utput (Self-explanatory)  
**PR** - **P**rotein **R**esequencers – used on ship when fresh food is not available. They say it doesn't taste the same though.  
**R** – **R**ange (Self-explanatory)  
**RAB** - **R**elativistic **A**ntiproton **B**eam – Liam's primary weapon.  
**RP** - **R**ing **P**latform  
**RT** – **R**echarge **T**ime needed to fully charge the shields. Sometime two values are given denoting how much it takes to recharge a shield with the reactors alone and the other with any additional power source a ship might have like a ZPM or an Asgard Power Core  
**S** – **S**trength is usually given in terawatt-hours (TWh), petawatt-hours (PWh). It is the amount of energy a weapon or a shield contains when charged to nominal strength. Weapons and shields can be overloaded or charged with less energy, depending if an additional power source has been added.  
**SAP** - **S**tandard **A**rmor **P**lating  
**SBR** – **S**ingle **B**arrel **R**ailgun – the same as double barrel just without the second barrel.  
**SE** – **S**tored **E**nergy - how much energy is stored inside a ZPM or some other similar device.  
**SF** – **S**elf **D**estruct  
**SPR** – **S**ingle **P**lasma **R**epeater – usually mounted on fighters.  
**SR** - **S**hielded **R**eactor – an energy barrier protects the most vulnerable piece on the ship.  
**VOCS** - **V**oice **O**perated **C**omputer **S**ystem

* * *

_Races are listed in alphabetical order._

* * *

**Ascended Alterrans**

**Description:** The Ascended Alterrans, Liam's people, had started leaving the mortal realm more than five million years ago, concluding their collective existence in the lower plain roughly a hundred thousand years ago. Their behavior could be construed as almost indifferent toward the hardships of the people in the lower plain, many times criticized because of it, but their prime directive instated a long time ago prevents them from interfering even in extreme cases when their own existence is threatened. Their non-interference directive is based on the believe that all living beings should have freedom and they fear that interacting with the lower plain will inevitably make people codependent and them make dictators in the long run, maybe benevolent, but still dictators. There are does in the higher plane who don't share the same sentiment and they are ready to bend the rules in order to help those in need, but usually they are able to do little if they don't want to incur the wrath of the others.  
**Government: **Elder's Council (non-interference prime directive)  
**Population: **unknown (believed millions)  
**Knowledge/Technology: **Ultra High (9)/not used  
**Energy Matrix: **~700 etawatts-hours of exotic energy

* * *

**Aschen**

**Description:** It is a widespread opinion that nature royally screwed up with the Aschen. The race is unable to feel any emotions, making them uncaring for any other races in the galaxy. The Aschen can be almost categorized as sociopaths who will without a shred of remorse commit genocide if it suits their needs and as such they pose a great threat to the galaxy and Earth in particular. The devastation of their home planet due to a wormhole having connected near a black hole makes them even more dangerous since they blame Earth for what has happened. While discussing the problem with Liam and the Asgard, no immediate solution to the Aschen problem has been found, mainly because of the many enemies they need to face first, but also because no permanent solution is immediately visible. Usually wars end once the leadership of the losing side has capitulated, but in the case of the Aschen it is believed that their entire population is on the same page with their leaders. As a result, any solution would be only temporary until the Aschen recuperate. With a massive industrial capacity on their home planet, it is believed they are able to quickly build a large force capable of threaten most other races in the Milky Way galaxy.  
**Government: **Unknown  
**Population:** 16 billion (approximation)  
**Planets:** Aschen Prime, 3 other planets in their Confederation.  
**Knowledge/Technology: **Moderate-to-High (6)/Moderate-to-High (6)  
**Additional Information:** Highly industrialized, unknown military structure or size, technologically at least 100 years ahead of Earth.  
**Threat assessment:** High (expansionistic, not against the use of biological warfare nor genocide, so far limited to their corner of the galaxy)  
**Ships:** Three different type of ship had been noticed by Liam (incomplete, more than a year old data)

**Type I (Cruiser)  
****Weapons: **4 Large Cannon ports (unknown type), 12 Small Cannons ports (unknown type)  
**Size:** (L: 275m, W: 110m, H: 70m)  
**Purpose:** supposed to serve as support vessel  
**Energy source: **Unknown Type (PO: ~500 TW - Approximation from sensor readings)  
**Defenses: **Shields (Strength: unknown)**, **Standard Armor Plating  
**Sensors:** unknown  
**Maneuverability:** Unknown  
**Propulsion: **Two Ion Propulsion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Intergalactic Hyperdrives (not present at the time)  
**Large Hangar Bay**: unknown content  
**Additional: **unknown  
**Allocation: **unknown  
**Built:** 36

**Type II (Heavy Cruiser)  
****Weapons: **2 Heavy Cannon ports, 6 Large Cannon ports, 28 Turrets  
**Size:** (L: 570m, W: 210m, H: 130m)  
**Purpose:** supposed to serve as support vessel  
**Energy source: **Unknown (Power Output: ~1.8 PW Approximation from sensor readings)  
**Defenses: **Approximation from sensor readings  
- Shields (S: 1.7 PWh, MRR: ~1.8 PW, RT: 58 min, C: 1.7)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM detected  
**Sensors:** unknown  
**Maneuverability:** Unknown  
**Propulsion: **Ion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Hyperdrive (not present at the time)  
**2 Large Hangar Bays**: unknown content  
**Additional: **unknown  
**Allocation: **unknown  
**Built:** 12

**Type III (Battleship)  
****Weapons: **6 Heavy Cannon ports, 12 Large Cannon ports, 28 Turrets  
**Size:** (L: 1170m, W: 410m, H: 270m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship  
**Energy source: **Unknown  
**Defenses: **Shields (S: unknown, MRR: unknown, RT: unknown, C: 1.7), ECM  
**Sensors:** unknown  
**Maneuverability:** Unknown  
**Propulsion: **Ion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Hyperdrive (not present at the time)  
**2 Massive Hangar Bays**:unknown content  
**Additional: **unknown  
**Allocation: **unknown  
**Built:** 2

* * *

**Asgard**

**Description: **One of the oldest known races, member of both, the First and Second Great Alliance. After a long and difficult war against the replicators, the Asgard race is once again on the rise. Liam discovery on how to cure their degenerative disease has returned hope to the Asgard, now finally able to increase their numbers by reviving their stored brethren and maybe one day by also being able to procreate again. The Asgard feel an obligation toward Liam and the Terrans for helping them in their time of most need. The Asgard were also the most fervent promoters for the formation of the SGA.  
**Government: **Council (as far as we know the council hasn't changed in eons)  
**Knowledge/Technology: **High (7+)/High (8)  
**Population:** 32 million (on the rise)  
**Planets: **Orilla (Ida Galaxy)  
**Military:** Asgard use their ships as the sole method for fighting. They have no foot soldiers.  
**Additional Information:** Highly industrialized homeworld, highly dependent on technology  
**Ships:**

**Beliskner  
****Weapons:  
**- 6 Ion Cannons (S: 35 TWh; FR:8 r/min, phase-shift technology)  
- 20 Point Defense Lasers (S:2 MWh, R: Short, FR: 220 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
**Size:** (L: 1405m, W: 700m, H: 390m)  
**Purpose:** Multipurpose vessel (obsolete)  
**Energy source: **3 Neutrino Ion Generators (PO: 4 PW)  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields 1st Gen (S: 1 PWh, MRR: 4PW, RT: 15 min, C: 1.56, MPI: 160 TW)  
- Asgard Stealth System  
- Internal Suppression System  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **GD, ID, IGH (CS: 7.4 Ly/s, MS: 52.2 Ly/s)  
**Additional: **24 Asgard Beaming Systems, Industrial Matter Converter, Asgard Core, Runes Operated Ship Systems, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 1, Additional Accommodations: 2000 people  
**Built:** 24

**Daniel Jackson  
****Weapons:  
**- 6 Asgard Ion Cannons (S: 55 TWh; FR:8 r/min, phase-shift technology)  
- 20 Point Defense Lasers (S:2 MWh, R: Short, FR: 220 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
**Size:** (L: 1000m, W: 800m, H: 260m)  
**Purpose:** Science Vessel  
**Energy source: **One Heavy Neutrino Ion Generator (PO: 2 PW)  
**Defenses:  
**- Shields (S: 1.8 PWh, MRR: 2 PW, RT: 54 min, C: 1.28)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- Asgard Stealth System  
- Internal Dampening Field  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate-to-High  
**Propulsion: **Gravitic Drive, Inertial Dampeners, IGH (CS: 8.2 Ly/s, MS: 58.3 Ly/s for 2 hours)  
**Additional: **24 Asgard Beaming Systems, Industrial Matter Converter, Asgard Core, Runes Operated Ship Systems, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 1, Additional Accommodations: 2000 people  
**Built:** 8

**O'Neill  
****Weapons:  
**- 6 Heavy Ion Cannons (PO: 140 TWh; FR: 6r/min, phase-shift technology)  
- 10 Asgard Ion Cannons (S: 55 TWh; FR:8 r/min, phase-shift technology)  
- 34 Point Defense Lasers (S:2 MWh, R: Short, FR: 220 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
**Size:** (L: 1500m, W: 700m, H: 320m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship, Flagship  
**Energy source: **Three Heavy Neutrino Ion Generators (PO: 6 PW)  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (S: 7PWh, MRR: 6 PW, RT: 70 min, C: 1.28)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- Asgard Stealth System  
- Internal Suppression System  
**Sensors: **Subspace Noise Detection Sensors (SNDS)  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate-to-high  
**Propulsion: **Gravitic Drive, Inertial Dampeners, IGH (CS: 9.4 Ly/s, MS:94.6 Ly/s for 2 hours)  
**Additional: **24 ABSs, 4 IMCs, Asgard Core, Runes Operated Ship Systems, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 1,Additional Accommodations: 5000 people  
**Built:** 17

**O'Neill II  
****Weapons:  
**- 6 Heavy Plasma Beams ( S: 310 TWh, D:7s, R: Long, FR:2 r/min)  
- 10 Plasma Beam Weapons (S: 85 TWh, D:5s, Range: long, FR:4 r/min)  
- 20 Heavy Dual Plasma Repeaters (S: 310 MWh, R: Moderate, FR: 240 r/min)  
- 34 Point Defense Lasers (S:2 MWh, R: Short, FR: 220 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
**Size:** (L: 1500m, W: 700m, H: 320m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship, Flagship  
**Energy source:  
**- One Enhanced Neutrino Ion Generators (PO: 8.2 PW)  
- Two Heavy Neutrino Ion Generators (PO: 4 PW)  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (S: 8.9PWh, MRR: 12.2 PW, RT: 44 min, C: 1.28)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- Asgard Stealth System  
- Internal Suppression System  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate-to-high  
**Propulsion: **Gravitic Drive, Inertial Dampeners, IGH (CS: 17.4 Ly/s, MS: 122.2 Ly/s for 3 hours)  
**Additional: **24 ABSs, 4 IMCs, Asgard Core, Runes Operated Ship Systems, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 1,Additional Accommodations: 5000 people  
**Built:** 0 (scheduled upgrade)

**Valhalla  
****Description:** Very much looking like the O'Neill, the Valhalla is the deadliest ship the Asgard have ever built and probably named that way because whoever tries to face in battle will inevitably end there. It uses the same technologies as the Terran Hercules class, albeit the ship is even larger than the Terran counterpart.  
**Weapons:  
**- 1 Relativistic Antiproton Beam (S:2.6 PWh, D:8s, R: Ultra Long, FR: 0.4 r/min, warps shields)  
- 10 Heavy Plasma Beams ( S: 310 TWh, D:7s, R: Long, FR:2 r/min)  
- 22 Plasma Beam Weapons (S: 85 TWh, D:5s, Range: long, FR:4 r/min)  
- 80 Heavy Dual Plasma Repeaters (S: 310 MWh, R: Moderate, FR: 240 r/min)  
- 88 Point Defense Lasers (S:3 MWh, R: Short, FR: 180 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
**Size:** (L: 2465m, W: 1220m, H: 510m)  
**Purpose:** Heavy Capital Ship, Flagship  
**Energy source:  
**- Six 1st Gen Enhanced Neutrino Ion Generators (PO: 49.23 PW, NI:50%)  
- Three Asgard Power Cores (PO: 189 PW, SE: 2.5 EWh)  
**Defenses:  
**- Multidimensional Shields (S: 33.8 PWh, MRR: 230 PW, RT: 41min/6.4min, C: 1.16)  
- Fortress Shield (Deployable satellites, R: 500 miles, S: 690 PWh, MRR: 1150 PW  
- Ablative Armor Layer, Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cloak, HSS  
- HDS  
- Internal Forcefields, Shielded Reactors, ISS  
- 240 Remotely Controlled Fighter Drones  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **GD, MT, IGH (CS: 56.4 Ly/s, MS: 290 Ly/s for 3 hours)  
**Additional: **26 ABS, IT, 4 IMC, Asgard Core, LPS, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 520, Additional Accommodations: 2000 people  
**Mass:** 102,717,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **20 months  
**Built: **0 (prototype will be built in a year)

* * *

**Edenians/Guardians/Liam**

**Description: **A race of advanced humans created by Liam more than ten thousand years ago with the purpose of one day taking the role as Guardians of this entire region of the universe. While the Edenians live free on their homeworld Eden Prime, the Guardian's Order led by Liam grows in numbers in order to provide a strong force that could face the many enemies threatening them. The Edenians strongly believe it is a matter of honor to become a Guardian and serve directly under their creator and savior who took them from the Pegasus galaxy and the oppression of the Wraith. No matter that the Edenians has been created with a clear purpose, they have progressed on their own, quickly creating a modern society not dissimilar from what the Alterran civilization once was.  
**Government type:** Council (Meritocracy)  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** High(8+)/High (8+)  
**Planets: **Eden Prime, 2 off-world bases, space station, 12 mining operations  
**Population:** 53.780.200  
**Army:** 13.000 enlisted, 2.466 officers  
**Marine Corps/Special Forces:** 2,234 enlisted, 322 officers  
**Space Force:** 120.000 enlisted, 40.122 officers  
**Ships:**

**Defiant Class  
****Weapons:  
**- 4 Small Pulse Cannons (S: 5 TWh, R: Moderate FR: 8r/min)  
- 1 Small Baryon Beam Weapon (S: 12 TWh , R: Moderate, FR:4 r/min)  
- 2 Torpedo Launchers (Plasma Torpedoes, Photon Torpedoes 10-100 Megatons)  
**Size:** (L: 80m, W: 60m, H: 20m)  
**Purpose:** support or standalone recon  
**Energy source:  
**- 4th Gen Small N/N Reactors (PO: 120 TW, NI: 40%)  
- Backup: Four Naquadah Generators (PO: 800 GW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Aurora Shields (S: 80 TWh, MRR: 120 TW, RT: 40 min, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, Cloak  
**Maneuverability: **High  
**Propulsion: **2 Ion Propulsion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Interstellar Hyperdrives (CS: 0.6 Ly/s, MS: 98 Ly/s for 30 min)  
**Additional: **Asgard Beaming System, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 8, Additional Accommodations: 12 people  
**Built:** 1 (soon to be retired)

**Cherubim Class  
****Weapons:  
**- 2 Bayron Pulse Cannons (S: 60 TWh, R: Moderate FR: 4r/min)  
- 6 Baryon Turrets (S: 120 MWh , R: Moderate, FR:600 round/min)  
- 3 Torpedo Taunchers (Plasma Torpedoes, Photon Torpedoes 10-100 Megatons)  
**Size:** (L: 185m, W: 82m, H: 32m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship, support or standalone  
**Energy source:  
**- Two 4th Gen N/N Reactors (PO: 850 TW, NI: 40%)  
- Backup: Six Naquadah Generators (PO: 1.8 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Aurora Shields (S: 690 TWh, MRR: 850 TW, RT: 49 min, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM, Cloak  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Four Ion Propulsion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Interstellar Hyperdrive (CS: 1.1 Ly/s, MS: 107 Ly/s for 30 min)  
**Additional: **Asgard Beaming System, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 56, Additional Accommodations: 50 people  
**Built:** 22

**Angel Class**  
**Description: **The next upgrade scheduled in less than a year. This upgrade will introduce all the new technologies the Terrans have worked on in collaboration with the other races in the Second Great Alliance. There will be so many changes that is difficult to believeit would still remain the same ship  
**Weapons:  
**- 4 Baryon Pulse Cannons (S: 60 TWh, Range: long, FR:4 r/min)  
- 12 Baryon Turrets (S: 120 MWh , R: Moderate, FR:600 round/min)  
- 300 Drones  
- 8 Torpedo Launchers (Plasma Torpedoes, Photon Torpedoes 10-100 Megatons)  
**Size:** (L: 325m, W: 120m, H: 56m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship, Support or standalone  
**Energy source:  
**- Two 4th Gen N/N Reactors (PO: 850 TW, NI: 40%)  
- One micro-ZPM (PO: 12 PW, SE: 7.3 PWh)  
- Backup: Six Naquadah Generators (PO: 1.8 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Aurora Shields (S: 1.16 PWh, MRR: 12.86 PW, RT: 80 min/5min, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cloak, HSS  
- Internal Forcefields  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Four Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, IGH (CS: 2.6 Ly/s, MS: 102.7 Ly/s for 45min)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 8 Puddle Jumpers  
**Additional: ** ABS, RP, 5 PRs, IMC, Chair, LPS, SD  
**Allocation: **Crew: 170, Additional Accommodations: 180 people  
**Mass:** 467,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **3.2 months  
**Built:** 0 (upgrade still not available)

**Seraphim Class  
****Description:** the second generation of the Achilles is schedule at the same time as the Daedalus. It is believed that once upgraded, the ship will be able to face an Ori capital ship alone and come up victorious.  
**Weapons:  
**- 2 Heavy Baryon Beam Weapons ( S: 350 TWh, D:8s, R: Long, FR:2.5 r/min)  
- 8 Baryon Pulse Cannons (S: 60 TWh, Range: Moderate, FR:8 r/min)  
- 22 Baryon Turrets (S: 120 MWh , R: Moderate, FR:600 round/min)  
- 1200 Hyper Drones  
- 12 Torpedo Launchers (Plasma Torpedoes, Photon Torpedoes 10-100 Megatons)  
**Size: **(L: 845m, W: 275m, H: 120m)  
**Purpose:** Heavy Capital Ship, Flagship  
**Energy source:  
**- Four 4th Gen Large N/N Reactors (PO: 3.9 PW, NI: 40%)  
- 3 micro-ZPM ( PO: 36 PW, SE: 21.9 PWh)  
**Defenses:  
**- Aurora Shields (S: 6.8 PWh, MRR: 48 PW, RT: 112min/10min, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cloak  
- HSS  
- HDS  
- Internal Forcefields  
- Shielded Reactors  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **4 Heavy Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, IGH (CS: 4.7 Ly/s, MS: 111.2 Ly/s for 1.5 hour)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 32 F-302, 8 Raptors  
**Additional: **4 ABS, RP, 4 PRs, IMC, Chair, LPS, SD  
**Allocation: **Crew: 412, Additional Accommodations: 400 people  
**Mass:** 3,827,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **9 months  
**Built:** 0 (upgrade still not available)

**Archangel Class  
****Description:** The Archangel is the deadliest ship the Guardians have ever built. It uses the same technologies as the Terrans Hercules class, albeit the ship is smaller than the Terrans counterpart.  
**Weapons:  
**- 1 Relativistic Antiproton Beam (S:2.6 PWh, D:8s, R: Ultra Long, FR: 0.3 r/min, warps shields)  
- 8 Heavy Baryon Beam Weapons ( S: 350 TWh, D:8s, R: Long, FR:2.5 r/min)  
- 14 Baryon Pulse Cannons (S: 60 TWh, Range: Moderate, FR:8 r/min)  
- 64 Heavy Dual Plasma Repeaters (S: 310 MWh, R: Moderate, FR: 240 r/min)  
- 48 Point Defense Lasers (S:3 MWh, R: Short, FR: 180 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
- 3000 Hyper Drones  
- 20 Torpedo Launchers (Plasma Torpedoes, Photon Torpedoes, Temporal Distortion Torpedoes, Dimensional Quantum Torpedoes)  
**Size:** (L: 1950m, W: 770m, H: 410m)  
**Purpose:** Heavy Capital Ship, Flagship  
**Energy source:  
**- Four 1st Gen Enhanced Neutrino Ion Generators (PO: 32.82 PW, NI:50%)  
- ZPM (PO: 208 PW, SE: 55 EWh)  
**Defenses:  
**- Multidimensional Shields (S: 31 PWh, MRR: 240 PW, RT: 56.5min/5.6min, C: 1.16)  
- Fortress Shield (Deployable satellites, R: 500 miles, S: 690 PWh, MRR: 1150 PW)  
- Ablative Armor Layer, Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cloak, HSS  
- HDS  
- Internal Forcefields, Shielded Reactors, ISS  
- 200 Remotely Controlled Fighter Drones  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **GD, MT, IGH (CS: 36.4 Ly/s, MS: 190 Ly/s for 2 hours)  
**Additional: **26 ABS, IT, 4 IMC, Chair, LPS, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 520, Additional Accommodations: 2000 people  
**Mass:** 102,717,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **20 months  
**Built: **0 (prototype will be built in a year)

**Liam's Ship  
****Description:** Liam's personal ship, built more than ten thousand years ago  
**Weapons:  
**- 1 Heavy Relativistic Antiproton Beam (S:6.5 PWh, D:10s, R: Ultra Long, FR: 0.2 r/min, warps shields)  
- 8 Heavy Baryon Beams ( S: 350 TWh, D:8s, R: Long, FR:2.5 r/min)  
- 24 Baryon Pulse Weapons (S: 60 TWh, Range: Moderate, FR:8 r/min)  
- 96 Heavy Dual Plasma Repeaters (S: 310 MWh, R: Moderate, FR: 240 r/min) - _upgrade  
_- 128 Point Defense Lasers (S:3 MWh, R: Short, FR: 180 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
- 5000 Hyper Drones  
- 25 Torpedo Launchers (Plasma Torpedoes, Photon Torpedoes, Temporal Distortion Torpedoes, Dimensional Photon Torpedoes, ZPE/Quantum Torpedoes)  
**Size:** (L: 3290m, W: 970m, H: 890m)  
**Purpose:** Heavy Capital Ship, Liam's Flagship  
**Energy source:  
**- Three ZPM (PO: 624 PW, SE: 165 EWh)  
- Two 1st Gen ENIG (PO: 15.91 PW, NI:50%) - _upgrade  
_**Defenses:  
**- Multidimensional Shields (S: 64.5 PWh, MRR: 640 PW, RT: 6min, C: 1.16)  
- Fortress Shield (Deployable satellites, R: 500 miles, S: 690 PWh, MRR: 1150 PW) - _upgrade  
_- Energy Dispersive Armor Layer, Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cloak, HSS  
- HDS  
- Internal Forcefields, Shielded Reactors, ISS  
- 400 Remotely Controlled Fighter Drones - _upgrade  
_**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **GD, MT, IGH (CS: 76.4 Ly/s, MS: 360 Ly/s for 1.5 hours)  
**Additional: **26 ABS, IT, 4 IMC, William, Neural Connection, LPS, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 1, Additional Accommodations: 2000 people  
**Mass:** 192,717,000 metric tons  
**Built: **0 (prototype will be built in a year)

**Construction Ship  
****Size: **(L: 2025m, W: 1280m, H: 670m)  
**Purpose: **Construction Ship  
**Energy source:  
**- Two Massive Alterran Naquadah Reactors (PO: 3.41 PW)  
**Defenses:  
**- Aurora Shields (S: 250 TWh, MRR: 2.54 PW, RT: 10.6 min, C: 1.56)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- Cloak  
**Maneuverability:** Very Low  
**Propulsion: **Four Ion Engines, MT, IDs, IGH (CS: 8.4 Ly/s, MS: 123.7 Ly/s for 5 min)  
**Additional:** 60 Industrial Beaming Systems, Internal Transporters, 10 IMC, AI Core, 24 Construction Robots  
**Crew:** Automated  
**Built:** 4

**City-Ship  
****Weapons: **8000 Drones  
**Size:** (L: 3625m, W: 3625, H: 970m)  
**Purpose:** City-ship  
**Energy source: **3 ZPM (PO: 624 PW, SE: 165 EWh)  
**Defenses: **Multilayered Shields (S: 80 PWh, MRR: 624 PW, RT: 7 min, C: 1.52), Cloak  
**Maneuverability:** Very Low  
**Propulsion: **Six Ion Engines, IDs, Stardrive (CS: 130 Ly/s, MS: 420 Ly/s for 3 hours)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 24 Puddle Jumpers  
**Additional:** Internal Transporters, Ring Platform,  
**Allocation: **65000 people  
**Mass:** 222,451,000 metric tons  
**Built: **1 (taken from the Asurans)

* * *

**Eurondans/Breeders**

**Description: **The Eurondans are finally recuperating after the war that left their planet almost completely toxic. The Terrans are trying to help them rebuild as well as clean the polluted surface with the help of the Nox, who for the first time have agreed to participate in a joint project. In return the Eurondans have given the Terrans their fusion reactor technology. The Terrans have given that technology to Earth as it was acquired specifically for that reason. Today the technology is still not in use on Earth. The Eurondans are also thinking of joining the growing interstellar community, but so far they have put most of their effort into rebuilding their world.

* * *

**Furlings**

**Description:** Little is known about the Furlings, except that they have mysteriously disappeared somewhere around five million years ago, the time when the plague had almost wiped out the entire Alterran population. From what Liam was able to tell us, the Furlings were great inventors, probably as a direct result of their ability to see far into the future. The Alterrans have also showed signs of clairvoyance, but it was always limited to events happening a few years into the future at the most. Opposed to the Alterrans, it was thought the Furlings could see millions of years into the future. The reason for their disappearance is still unknown, but Liam has found evidence of the Furlings having lived in a distant galaxy a hundred thousand years ago. Further investigation has already been planned and research into Atlantis database as well as information given by the other three oldest races is currently being collected.

* * *

**Galarans**

**Description:** The Galarans are an advanced race of humans no more advanced than Earth except for the few Goa'uld devices they have found and reverse engineered like the memory recall device. Even after their attempt to blame Mitchell for murder, the Terrans have been able to repair their relations and currently the Terrans are in the process of signing a trade agreement with them. The Galarans are currently interested in acquiring hyperdrive technology from the Terrans in order to start building their own interstellar ships. The Galarans were a member of the Protected Planets Treaty.  
**Government type:** Democracy  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** Moderate (4)/Moderate (4)  
**Planets: **Galar  
**Population:** 1.2 billion  
**Army:** unknown  
**Space Force:** none  
**Ships:** none at the moment

* * *

**Genii**

**Description: **The Genii have become a militaristic regime in order to survive the Wraith threat. First encounter with them didn't go well as the Genii had tried to take Atlantis from the Terrans. Only after Radim has come to power, the relations have become somewhat amicable, although their military is not as forthcoming as Radim is and his position is not as strong as it should be. A failed coup d'état from the military showed how unstable Radim's regime was, and it is believed it still is. The TIA believes it would be beneficial if the Terrans could aid Radim into staying in power if stability in the Pegasus galaxy wants to be achieved.  
**Government type:** Self-appointed leader Ladon Radim, militaristic regime  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** Low-To-Moderate (3)/Low-to-Moderate (3)  
**Planets: **dozens  
**Population:** ~20 millions  
**Army:** it is believed they have hundreds of thousands of soldiers  
**Space Force:** none  
**Threat assessment:** low (militaristic, believe to be the rightful ruler of the Pegasus galaxy)  
**Ships:** none at the moment

* * *

**Herbidians**

**Description:** The Herbidians are a technologically advanced race that brought capitalism to a whole new level, in which corporations are the ruling party. Although strange such a system could survive since it stands to logic these corporations would further their own agendas through new legislations, the Herbidians have a very strong constitution, somewhat limiting their ability to change laws in their favor. The Herbidians are thought to be friends of the Terrans and are one of the few races in the Milky Way galaxy capable of space travel. Lately though, the relations between the two races has hit a difficult patch as the Herbidians weren't allowed to freely access Earth's market and rather having to deal with Earth only through the Terrans, something the Herbidians didn't particularly like. The negative side effect was much greater than the Terrans have initially believed it would be. Not seeing any direct interest, the Herbidians have almost completely severed any contact with the Terrans.  
**Government type:** Corporations  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** Moderate-to-High (5+)/Moderate-to-High (5+)  
**Planets: **1 planet  
**Population:** 2.1 billions  
**Army:** unknown  
**Space Force:** unknown  
**Threat assessment:** none (although the Herbidians have somewhat pulled back from any collaboration, they are not believed to be hostile)  
**Ships:** unknown

* * *

**Jaffa**

**Description: **The Free Jaffa Nation is still struggling in their newly found independence. After the defeat and sudden disappearance of Gerak, the Jaffa traditionalists have lost most support and with the placement of Bra'tac as Head of the Council, the Free Jaffa Nation is finally stepping into a period of progress and innovation, especially with the help of the Terrans who see friends in the Jaffa and want to help them progress into a modern society.  
**Government type:** Council (appointed through military strength and how much they are valued as warriors)  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** Low-to-Moderate (3+)/Moderate-to-High (5)  
**Planets: **Dakara, more than 50 worlds under their control  
**Population:** 630 million (probably more but there is no registry)  
**Army:** more than a million  
**Ships:**

**Glider  
****Weapons: **2 Heavy Staff Plasma Cannons (S: 120 MWh, R: Short, FR: 10r/min)  
**Size:** (L: 12m, W: 16m, H: 4)  
**Purpose:** Space Fighter  
**Energy source: **One 1st Gen Small Naquadah Reactor (PO: 120 MW)  
**Defenses: **Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Gravitic Drive, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners  
**Allocation: **Crew: 2  
**Built:** 1296

**Tel'tak**

**Size:** (L: 23m, W: 16m, H: 8m)  
**Purpose:** Small Cargo Ship  
**Energy source: **One Small Goa'uld Naquadah Reactor (PO: 20 GW)  
**Defenses: **Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Ion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Interstellar Hyperdrive (CS: 4.5Ly/h, MS:12 Ly/h)  
**Additional: **Ring Platform, Cloak  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 2, Non-crew: 10 people  
**Built:** 89

**Al'kesh  
****Weapons: **2 Small Plasma Cannons (S: 1.5 GWh, R: Short, FR: 15r/min)  
**Size:** (L: 37m, W: 24m, H: 11m)  
**Purpose:** Assault, Bomber  
**Energy source:  
**One Goa'uld Naquadah Reactor (PO: 200 GW)  
Backup: Naquadah Generator (P:12 GW )  
**Defenses:  
**Goa'uld Shields (S: 100 GWh, MRR: 200 GW, RT: 30 min, C:2.5, MPI:160 MW)  
Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Ion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Interstellar Hyperdrives (CS: 5.5 Ly/h, MS: 14.3 Ly/h)  
**Additional: **Ring Platform, Cloak  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 2, Non-crew: 35 people  
**Built:** 223

**Ha'tak Type I  
****Weapons: **24 Plasma Cannons (S:12 TWh. R:Moderate)  
**Size:** (L: 680m, W: 680m, H: 540m)  
**Purpose:** Mother ship  
**Energy source:  
**One 1st Gen Heavy Naquadah Reactor (PO:200 TW)  
Backup: Ten Naquadah Generators (PO: 12 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**Goa'uld Shields (S: 250 TWh, MRR: 200 TW, RT: 68 min, C: 2.5, MPI: 160 GW)  
Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Gravitic Drive, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Anubis Improved Interstellar Hyperdrives (CS:55.5 Ly/h, MS: 114 Ly/h)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 8 Tel'tak, 50 Gliders  
**Additional: **5 Ring Platform, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 95, Non-crew: 1000 people  
**Built:** 12

**Ha'tak Type II  
****Weapons: **24 Plasma Cannons (PC) (S:18 TWh, R:Moderate, FR: 10r/min)  
**Size:** (L: 680m, W: 680m, H: 540m)  
**Purpose:** Mother Ship  
**Energy source:  
**One 2nd Gen Heavy Naquadah Reactor (PO:280 TW)  
Backup: Ten Naquadah Generators (PO:12 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**Anubis Shields (S:350 TWh, MRR: 280 TW, RT: 76 min, C:1.9)  
Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Gravitic Drive, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Anubis Improved Interstellar Hyperdrives (CS:130.5Ly/h, MS:370Ly/h)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 8 Tel'tak, 50 Gliders  
**Additional: **5 Ring Platforms, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 95, Non-crew: 1000 people  
**Built:** 56

**Ha'tak Type III  
****Weapons:  
**8 Heavy Plasma Cannons (LPC) (S:50 TWh, Range: Moderate, FR: 6r/min)  
10 Plasma Cannons (PC) (S:18 TWh, Range: Moderate, FR: 10r/min)  
**Size:** (L: 680m, W: 680m, H: 440m)  
**Purpose:** Mother ship  
**Energy source:  
**Two 3rd Gen Heavy Naquadah Reactor (PO: 700 TW, Tau'ri improved)  
Backup: Ten Naquadah Generators (PO: 12 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**Anubis Shields (S: 660 TWh, MRR: 33 TW, RT: 56 min, C: 1.6)  
Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Gravitic Drive, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Tau'ri Improved Interstellar Hyperdrives (CS: 330.7Ly/h, MS: 820 Ly/h)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 8 Tel'tak, 50 Gliders  
**Additional: **5 Ring Platforms, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 95, Non-crew: 500 people  
**Built:** 16

* * *

**Langarans**

**Description:** After the attempted invasion of the Ori, Langara is still fighting a war against the many followers still present on the planet's surface. Still, knowing that the fighting will inevitably end, the Langarans are already looking to the future. With the help of the Terrans, the Langarans are rebuilding and already planning for the next step in which they are about to start their space program. In exchange for large quantities of Naquadria, the Terrans are in return giving technology that will quickly turn Langara into a modern world as well as giving them the means to start exploring the galaxy. The main concern is still the three separate nations on the planet unable to come to terms with each other. Even though on paper they have become the Langarans, a single race, often their internal rivalry sets them back into old habits.  
**Government type:** Democracy  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** Low-to-Moderate (3+)/ Moderate (4)  
**Planets: **Langara  
**Population:** 1.7 billions  
**Army:** more than 500.000 enlisted  
**Ships: **planning their first ship

* * *

**Lucian Alliance**

**Description: **A torn in the backside of the Terrans, the Lucian Alliance is a criminal organization bent on acquiring power and welt through any means necessary. Capable of interstellar travel as well as having a vast fleet of Ha'taks, the Lucians represent a great threat to the stability of the Milky Way galaxy. Although, in the past, the Lucians have openly opposed the Terrans, they have recently quieted down. They are well aware the Terrans and their allies are the only one capable of stopping the incursion of the Ori and that means, until the situation with the Ori isn't resolved, the Lucians are rather waiting patiently and leaving the Terrans and the Jaffa to fight the Ori.  
**Government type:** Leader Odai Ventrell with a dozen captain as second in command  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** Low-to-Moderate (3+)/ Moderate-To-High (5+)  
**Planets: **several planets are being used as base of operation or warehouses  
**Population:** tens of thousands  
**Ships:**

**Glider  
****Weapons: **2 Heavy Staff Plasma Cannons (S: 1.2 GWh, R:Short)  
**Size:** (L: 12m, W: 16m, H: 4)  
**Purpose:** Space Fighter  
**Energy source: **One 1st Gen Small Naquadah Reactor (PO: 120 MW)  
**Defenses: **Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Gravitic Drive, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners  
**Allocation: **Crew: 2  
**Built:** 780

**Tel'tak  
****Size:** (L: 23m, W: 16m, H: 8m)  
**Purpose:** Small Cargo Ship  
**Energy source: **One Small Goa'uld Naquadah Reactor (PO: 20 GW)  
**Defenses: **Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Ion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Interstellar Hyperdrive (CS: 4.5Ly/h, MS:12 Ly/h)  
**Additional: **Ring Platform, Cloak  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 2, Non-crew: 10 people  
**Built:** 120

**Al'kesh  
****Weapons: **2 Small Plasma Cannons (S: 1.5 GWh, R: Short, FR: 15r/min)  
**Size:** (L: 37m, W: 24m, H: 11m)  
**Purpose:** Assault, Bomber  
**Energy source:  
**- One Goa'uld Naquadah Reactor (PO: 200 GW)  
- Backup: Naquadah Generator (P:12 GW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Goa'uld Shields (S: 100 GWh, MRR: 200 GW, RT: 30 min, C:2.5, MPI:160 MW)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Ion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Interstellar Hyperdrives (CS: 5.5 Ly/h, MS: 14.3 Ly/h)  
**Additional: **Ring Platform, Cloak  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 2, Non-crew: 35 people  
**Built:** 123

**Ha'tak Type I  
****Weapons: **24 Plasma Cannons (S:12 TWh. R:Moderate)  
**Size:** (L: 680m, W: 680m, H: 540m)  
**Purpose:** Mother ship  
**Energy source:  
**- One 1st Gen Heavy Naquadah Reactor (PO:200 TW)  
- Backup: Ten Naquadah Generators (PO: 12 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Goa'uld Shields (S: 250 TWh, MRR: 200 TW, RT: 68 min, C: 2.5, MPI: 160 GW)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Gravitic Drive, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Anubis Improved Interstellar Hyperdrives (CS:55.5 Ly/h, MS: 114 Ly/h)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 8 Tel'tak, 50 Gliders  
**Additional: **5 Ring Platform, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 95, Non-crew: 1000 people  
**Built:** 32

**Ha'tak Type II  
****Weapons: **24 Plasma Cannons (PC) (S:18 TWh, R:Moderate, FR: 10r/min)  
**Size:** (L: 680m, W: 680m, H: 540m)  
**Purpose:** Mother Ship  
**Energy source:  
**- One 2nd Gen Heavy Naquadah Reactor (PO:280 TW)  
- Backup: Ten Naquadah Generators (PO:12 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Anubis Shields (S:350 TWh, MRR: 280 TW, RT: 76 min, C:1.9)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **Goa'uld Gravitic Drive, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Anubis Improved Interstellar Hyperdrives (CS:130.5Ly/h, MS:370Ly/h)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 8 Tel'tak, 50 Gliders  
**Additional: **5 Ring Platforms, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 95, Non-crew: 1000 people  
**Built:** 23

* * *

**Nox**

**Description:** The Nox are the oldest known race, dedicated to a life of harmony with nature and any and all living creatures. After the fall of the First Great Alliance, the Nox have become isolationist, mostly because of the lack of understanding from other races about their life philosophy. Little else is known about the Nox, mostly because it's like pulling a tooth out every time you try to ask them anything about any subject. Their unwillingness to share information about them as well as their Zen-like philosophy of letting others discover things on their own rather than simply showing them, has made interaction with them somewhat difficult. With the new academy on Tantalus, built with the sole purpose of sharing knowledge and understanding, the Terrans hope at least partially to succeed in opening up the Nox to talk to them.  
**Government type:** unknown  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** High (8)/High (8)  
**Planets: **Gaia  
**Population:** unknown  
**Army:** none  
**Space Force:** none  
**Ships:** unknown

* * *

**Optricans**

**Description: **The Optricans are still fighting on their own planet, trying to quell the Bedrosian terrorists still believing into Nefertem as their only god and savior even after all the evidence that negates that theory. Even with help from the Terrans, the situation on their planet is far from being resolved. Still, the Optricans look at the future with hope, very much looking forward to exploring the galaxy through the stargate and soon with ships capable of interstellar travel thanks to the Terrans supplying them hyperdrives and the knowledge behind them.  
**Government type:** Democracy  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** Moderate-to-High (5+)/ Moderate-to-High (5+)  
**Planets: **1 planet  
**Population:** 480 million (670 million Bedrosians)  
**Army:** 800.000  
**Threat assessment:** low (it is still possible for the Bedrosians to gain power on the planet)  
**Ships: **planning to build their first ship

* * *

**Ori**

**Description: **Ascended beings bent on dominating humans from the lower plane and using them as source for their increased powers. The Ori enslave humans through their religion, Origin, in order to make humans pray to them, a way to drain them or their core energy. The Ori want nothing more than to destroy their long lost brethren the Alterrans who have escaped their home galaxy more than 32 million years ago rather than to face them in a war that would most probably had destroyed them. The Ori use Priors, advanced humans, to spread Origin and their will throughout the Universe. Priors become those who have showed to be their most devoted followers, ready to give their life for their cause. The cornerstone of their religion is the lie that all followers of Origin will eventually ascend, gaining everlasting life.  
**Government type:** Despotism, Theocracy  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** Ultra High (9)/High (8+)  
**Planets: **an entire galaxy  
**Population:** maybe even hundreds of billions.  
**Army:** for all intent a purpose, unlimited  
**Threat assessment:** Very High (we are still unable to find a viable way to fight back.)  
**Ships:**

**Mother Ship  
****Weapons:  
**- 1 Ori Heavy Energy Beam (S:450 TWh, D:4s, R: Long)  
- 12 Energy Pulse Cannons (S:55 TWh, Range: Moderate)  
**Size:** (L: 1100m, W: 650m, H: 460m)  
**Purpose:** Heavy Capital Ship, Flagship  
**Energy source: **Singularity Core (PO: 16 PW)  
**Defenses: **Ori Shields (S: 3.2 PWh, MRR: 16 PW, RT: 12min, C: 1.31)  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **Ori Gravitic Drive, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, 2 Intergalactic Hyperdrives (CS: 5.4 Ly/s, MS: 37.2 Ly/s)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 56 Fighters  
**Additional: **Ring Platform  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 1 prior, Additional Accommodations: 1000 people  
**Built: Unknown** (18 destroyed)

* * *

**Pangarans  
**

**Description: **The Pangarans are a human race almost a hundred years less developed than Earth. Currently the Terrans have a Trinium mine on their planet in exchange for technologies that will advance the Pangarans in short time, as well as prepare them to defend their world against the many threats in the galaxy. Recently the Pangarans have successfully repelled an incursion through the stargate by the Lucians who have somehow gained their gate address, probably because they have started exploring the galaxy through the gate and inevitably called attention on themselves. The Terrans have recommended the Pangarans to limit their exploration in order to escape any possible dire consequences. The Terrans believe the Pangarans to, by the most part, be a pacifistic race unprepared for a galaxy with so many hostile races.  
**Government type:** Democracy  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** High(3)/High (3)  
**Planets: **Pangara  
**Population:** 283 millions

* * *

**Quirilians (People from P4M-328)**

**Description: **The Quirilians are a relatively modern society, somewhere around Earth's mid-eighties. After the first encounter, when SG-1 and Doctor Daniel Jackson arrived inside a museum, no more contacts have been made. It is believed the Quirilians have buried their gate in fear. Recently, the Terrans have sent a spy ship in orbit above their planet to collect as much intel as possible. It appears that the Quirilians have drastically increased expenditure for their military and into several related research projects. The knowledge that there are other aliens in the galaxy, especially what Daniel Jackson had told them, made them fearful for their safety.

* * *

**Senari**

**Description: **The Senari are a race that has been enslaved by the still unknown race the Vargas. The reason why the Vargas have enslaved the Senari is clear though. Through them, they are controlling several larger galaxies by killing any race that has achieved interstellar flight capabilities. Every ten thousand years the Senari would start the cycle of destruction anew, crossing to other galaxies and destroying everyone who stands in their way. Only a small group of Senari, those who are not affected by the neural implant or those that haven't been implanted with it after birth, are trying to free their people from enslavement and from committing such atrocities any longer. The only Senari we know of is Mial, a survivor of the battle at the anomaly and one of those who are immune to the neural implant control. Liam and Mial are currently trying to find a way to deactivate the implant, albeit the complete deactivation would in many cases mean the death of the subject or at least high level of impairment.  
**Government type:** Subjugated by the Vargas  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** High(5)/High (5)  
**Planets: **dozens of world in their galaxy  
**Population:** tens of billions  
**Army:** unknown  
**Threat assessment:** Moderate (currently isolated in their own galaxy, but they still pose a threat, at least until the neural implant isn't deactivated)  
**Ships:**

**Type I (Scout)  
****Weapons: **2 Energy Cannons ports (unknown type), 6 Smaller Energy Cannons (unknown type)  
**Size:** (L: 175m, W: 110m, H: 50m)  
**Purpose:** scout  
**Energy source: **Unknown Type (PO: ~300 TW - Approximation from sensor readings)  
**Defenses: **Shields (Strength: unknown)**, **Standard Armor Plating  
**Sensors:** unknown  
**Maneuverability:** Unknown  
**Propulsion: **Ion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Interstellar Hyperdrives  
**Large Hangar Bay**: unknown  
**Additional: **unknown  
**Allocation: **unknown  
**Built:** believed hundreds

**Type II (Heavy Cruiser)  
****Weapons: **6 Large Cannon ports, 12 Smaller Cannon ports, 12 Turrets  
**Size:** (L: 510m, W: 320m, H: 110m)  
**Purpose:** supposed to serve as support vessel  
**Energy source: **Unknown (Power Output: ~1.1 PW Approximation from sensor readings)  
**Defenses: **Approximation from sensor readings  
- Shields (S: 0.9 PWh, MRR: ~1.1 PW, RT: 52 min, C: 1.5)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM detected  
**Sensors:** unknown  
**Maneuverability:** Unknown  
**Propulsion: **Ion Engines, Maneuvering Thrusters, Inertial Dampeners, Hyperdrive (not present at the time)  
**Additional: **unknown  
**Allocation: **unknown  
**Built:** believed in the hundreds

**Type III (Battleship)  
****Description: **this ship has never been seen.  
**Weapons: **unknown  
**Size:** (L: 1340m, W: 810m, H: 320m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship  
**Energy source: **Unknown  
**Defenses: **Shields (S: unknown, MRR: unknown, RT: unknown)  
**Sensors:** unknown  
**Maneuverability:** Unknown  
**Propulsion: **unknown  
**Additional: **unknown  
**Allocation: **unknown  
**Built:** ~100

* * *

**Tagreans**

**Description: **A previously Goa'uld-occupied civilization who have chosen to forget all but the industrial era (the last few hundred years) of their civilization to press forward into their new history with revived spirit. The Tagreans are typically a friendly people, but very cautious to outsiders, and are always on the lookout for anything that may resemble another invasion force.  
The Tagreans are led by Ashwan, a charismatic chairman who is more than open to relations with the Tau'ri. Unfortunately, not all of the people respond to him as much as they do to Kalfas, the minister of defense who commands a battalion of Tagrean gun boats and ground-to-air defense devices. Kalfas was disturbed with the detonation of the Tau'ri vessel's hyperdrive engine in the orbit of their planet, and believed it was a hostile act. Fortunately, Ashwan's opinions won over, and Prometheus was allowed to touch down to commence repairs.  
Before all was said and done, an encounter with humans from Earth ended very nearly with hostility as several local Tagreans were aiding in the diggings in the Northern deserts to unearth the Stargate, which could potentially bring threats back to their planet. With the aid of Ashwan and his well-said words, the Tagreans sided with him and took Kalfas into custody, allowing the humans to return to Earth for supplies to fix their damaged starship.  
After the incident, relations between Earth and the Tagreans have progressed slowly but amicably. The Tagreans are probably the only race of humans in the Milky Way that will soon have interstellar capabilities without the help of the Terrans. Recently the Tagreans have acquired a Tel'tak from an unknown source and they were quickly able to reverse engineer the vessel's systems.  
**Government type:** Democracy  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** moderate-to-high (5)/moderate-to-high (5)  
**Planets: **Tagrea  
**Population:** 920,000  
**Army:** unknown  
**Ships: **building their first interstellar ship

* * *

**Terrans**

**Description: **The Terran Alliance is an organization devoted to the protection of Earth and all of his colonies from outside threats. As per mandate, the Terran Alliance has no authority to work on Earth's soil with the exception of their Headquarter Terrania, even in case of war between countries.  
**Government type:** Council (Meritocracy)  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** High(6+)/High (8)  
**Planets: **Earth, Asura, Tollana, Terra Nova, 3 off-world bases, 8 mining operations  
**Population:** 2,780,200 (constantly expanding)  
**Army:** 313.000 enlisted, 62.466 officers  
**Marine Corps/Special Forces:** 78,234 enlisted, 18.322 officers  
**Space Fleet:** 145.000 enlisted, 42.122 officers  
**Ships:**

**F-302a & F-302b  
****Description:** The F-302 is the first Terran fighter capable of spaceflight. A variant has been subsequently devised with the only change the craft carrying conventional bombs instead of AA missile  
**Weapons: **2– frontal SBR, 6 AA missiles (a variant), 4 bombs (b variant)  
**Size:** (L: 14 m, W:21 m)  
**Purpose:** Fighter (a variant), Bomber (b variant)  
**Energy source: **One Small Naquadah generator (S: 110MW)  
**Defenses: **ECM  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion:** Air breathing jets, modified aero spikes, jet booster, inertial dampeners  
**Mass:** 15.5 metric tons  
**Built:** 617a, 65b

**F-302c Viper  
****Description:** The Viper is the latest in Terran fighter technology. His railguns have been replaced with single plasma repeaters for increased yield, a cloak and a shield had been added and it has a small hyperdrive capable of crossing 0.5 Ly. It is not intended for travel to other star systems. His use is more tactical in nature.  
**Weapons: **2 Frontal SPRs(S: 60 MWh, FR: 200 r/min), 6 AA Missiles (5 Megaton Mark VII)  
**Size:** (L: 12m, W: 13m)  
**Purpose:** Fighter  
**Energy source: **One 2nd Gen Small Naquadah Generator (PO: 680 MW)  
**Defenses: **Shields (S: 22 MWh, MRR: 480 MW, RT: 3 min, C: 1.77, MPI: 20 MW), ECM, Cloak  
**Maneuverability:** Ultra High  
**Propulsion: **2 IE, MT, ID, ISH (CS: 0.5 Ly/h)  
**Crew:** 2  
**Mass:** 14 metric tons  
**Built: **56

**R-312  
****Description:** The Raptor is the first Terrans ship capable of carrying a squad of marines giving them the tactical advantage of deploying soldiers on the planet surface when other methods like beaming are not available.  
**Weapons: **1 Rotatory Minigun, 2 Missiles Launchers  
**Size:** (L: 16m, W: 5m)  
**Purpose:** Squad transporter, aerial support  
**Energy source: **One 2nd Gen Small Naquadah Generator (PO: 680 MW)  
**Defenses: **Armor plating  
**Maneuverability:** Ultra High  
**Propulsion: **2 IE, MT, ID  
**Crew:** 2 pilots and 10 people  
**Mass:** 16 metric tons  
**Built: **89

**DS-322  
****Description:** The need for dirt-side deployment of soldiers as well as vehicles made the Hammerhead drop-ship project become a reality. The ship is capable of easily carrying a platoon of soldiers or several tanks or other vehicles to the surface of a planet. Although the drop-ship has a hyperdrive, it is typically carried by larger ships like the SC-310 Super Carrier or the smaller AC-309 Assault Carrier  
**Weapons: **4 Frontal SPRs(S:60 MWh, FR: 200 r/min), 2 Missile Launcher, 2 Dual Plasma Repeaters (S: 120 MWh , R: Moderate, FR:400 round/min)  
**Size:** (L: 54m, W: 18m, H: 5m)  
**Purpose:** troops or vehicle transporter  
**Energy source: **Two 2nd Gen Naquadah Generator (PO: 5.3 TW)  
**Defenses: **Shields (S: 530 MWh, MRR: 480 MW, RT: 6 min, C: 1.77, MPI: 20 MW), ECM, Cloak  
**Maneuverability:** Ultra High  
**Propulsion: **2 IE, MT, ID, ISH (CS: 10 Ly/h)  
**Crew:** 4  
**Mass:** 1.227 metric tons  
**Built: **23

**D-303c Prometheus class  
****Description:** First capital ship the Terrans have built  
**Weapons:  
**- 4 Plasma Cannons (S:15 TWh, R: Moderate, FR: 8 r/min)  
- 4 Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE: 38MW, R: Moderate, FR:1200 r/min)  
- 4 Torpedo Launchers (1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton, Mark IX Gate Buster 100 Megatons)  
**Size:** (L: 225m, W: 60m, H: 70m)  
**Purpose:** First Capital Ship, for support or standalone (obsolete)  
**Energy source:  
**- Two 2nd Gen N/N Medium Reactors (PO: 275 TW)  
- Backup: Four Naquadah Generators (PO: 800 GW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (S: 275 TWh, MRR: 225 TW, RT: 71 min, C: 1.47)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM  
**Maneuverability: **Moderate  
**Propulsion: **2 Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, IGH (CS: 0.6 Ly/s, MS: 15 Ly/s for 1 hour)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 2 F-302c Vipers, 2 Raptors  
**Additional: **ABS, RP, Standard Support System, Self-Destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 146, Additional Accommodations: 100 people  
**Mass:** 190,000 metric tons  
**Built:** 1 (soon to be retired)

**BC-304c Daedalus Class  
****Description:** The Daedalus is the first truly capital ship the Terrans have built that went into mass production. The Daedalus is the most common ship in the Terrans fleet and so far it has been upgraded two times  
**Weapons:  
**- 2 Intermediate Plasma Cannons (S:70 TWh, R: Moderate, FR: 5 r/min)  
- 2 Plasma Cannons (S: 15 TWh, R: Moderate, FR: 8 r/min)  
- 6 Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE:, R: Moderate, 1200 round/min)  
- 8 Torpedo Launchers (1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton, Mark IX Gate Buster 100 Megatons)  
**Size:** (L: 325m, W: 120m, H: 56m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship, support or standalone  
**Energy source:  
**- Three 3th Gen N/N Medium Reactors (PO: 625 TW: NI: 28%)  
- Backup: Six Naquadah Generators (PO: 1.2 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (S: 540 TWh, MRR: 625 TW, RT: 52 min, C: 1.47)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Four Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, Intergalactic Hyperdrive (CS: 1.4 Ly/s, MS: 67 Ly/s for 30 min)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 16 F-302c Vipers, 4 Raptors  
**Additional: **1Asgard Beaming System, Ring Platform, Standard Support System, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 216, Additional Accommodations: 150 people  
**Mass:** 417,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **3 month  
**Built:** 22

**BC-304d Daedalus Class  
****Description: **The next upgrade scheduled in less than a year. This upgrade will introduce all the new technologies the Terrans have worked on in collaboration with the other races in the Second Great Alliance. There will be so many changes that is difficult to believeit would still remain the same ship  
**Weapons:  
**- 4 Plasma Beam Weapons (S: 85 TWh, D:5s, Range: long, FR:4 r/min)  
- 4 Dual Plasma Repeaters (S: 120 MWh , R: Moderate, FR:400 round/min)  
- 4 Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE:38 MWh, R: Moderate, FR: 1200 round/min)  
- 200 Asuran Drones  
- 8 Torpedo Launchers (1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton, Mark IX Gate Buster 100 Megatons)  
**Size:** (L: 325m, W: 120m, H: 56m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship, Support or standalone  
**Energy source:  
**- Two 4th Gen N/N Reactors (PO: 760 TW, NI: 35%)  
- One micro-ZPM (PO: 12 PW, SE: 7.3 PWh)  
- Backup: Six Naquadah Generators (PO: 1.8 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (S: 1.06 PWh, MRR: 12.76 PW, RT: 83 min/5min, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cloak, HSS  
- Internal Forcefields  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Four Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, Intergalactic Hyperdrive (CS: 2.2 Ly/s, MS: 124.8 Ly/s for 30min)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 16 F-302c Vipers, 4 Raptors  
**Additional: ** ABS, RP, 5 PR, IMC, VOCS, LTSS, LPS, SD  
**Allocation: **Crew: 216, Additional Accommodations: 150 people  
**Mass:** 417,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **3.4 month  
**Built:** 0 (upgrade still not available)

**BS-305a Achilles Class  
****Description:** The Achilles is the response the Terrans have regarding the Wraith hive ships. The ship is many times stronger than the BC-304 and it is believed to be able to face a Wraith hive on par. While the Terrans are building less and less Daedalus, the BS-305 is planned to have four more ships ready in less than a year.  
**Weapons:  
**- 3 Heavy Plasma Cannons (S:210 TWh, R: Long, FR:3 r/min)  
- 6 Intermediate Plasma Cannons (S:70 TWh, R: Moderate, FR: 5 r/min)  
- 24 Heavy Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE: 53 MWh, R: Long, FR: 1200 r/min)  
- 12 torpedo launchers (1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton, Mark IX Gate Buster 100 Megatons)  
**Size: **(L: 685m, W: 255m, H: 110m)  
**Purpose:** Heavy Capital Ship, Flagship  
**Energy source:  
**- Three 3rd Gen Large N/N reactor (PO: 2.2 PW, NI: 28%)  
- (Enterprise): ZPM (PO: 208 PW, SE: 55 EWh)  
- Backup Naquadah generators (PO:10 TW)  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (S: 4,1 PWh, MRR: 41 PW, RT: 117min/6min, C: 1.47)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Internal Forcefields  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **4 Heavy Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, IGH (CS: 4.4 Ly/s, MS: 70.2 Ly/s for 1.3 hours)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 32 F-302, 8 Raptors  
**Additional: **2 ABSs, RP, SD  
**Allocation: **Crew: 312, Additional Accommodations: 400 people  
**Mass:** 2,967,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **8 months  
**Built:** 2

**BS-305b Achilles Class  
****Description:** the second generation of the Achilles is schedule at the same time as the Daedalus. It is believed that once upgraded, the ship will be able to face an Ori capital ship alone and come up victorious.  
**Weapons:  
**- 3 Heavy Plasma Beam Weapons (S: 310 TWh, D:7s, R:Long, FR:2 r/min)  
- 6 Plasma Beam Weapons (S: 85 TWh, D:5s, Range: long, FR:4 r/min)  
- 8 Heavy Dual Plasma Repeaters (S:310 MWh, R: Moderate, FR: 240 r/min)  
- 16 Heavy Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE:53 MWh, R: Long, FR: 1200 r/min at 850 km/s)  
- 800 Asuran Drones  
- 12 torpedo launchers (1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton, Mark IX Gate Buster 100 Megatons)  
**Size:** (L: 685m, W: 255m, H: 110m)  
**Purpose:** Heavy Capital Ship, Flagship  
**Energy source:  
**- Three 4th Gen Large N/N Reactors (PO: 2.78 PW, NI: 35%)  
- 3 micro-ZPM ( PO: 36 PW, SE: 21.9 PWh)  
- Enterprise: ZPM (PO: 208 PW, SE: 55 EWh)  
- Subspace Capacitor (PO: 9PW, SE: 800 TWh)  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (S: 4.8 PWh, MRR: 48 PW, RT: 103min/6min, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cloak  
- HSS  
- HDS  
- Internal Forcefields  
- Shielded Reactors  
**Maneuverability:** Low  
**Propulsion: **4 Heavy Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, IGH (CS: 5.4 Ly/s, top speed: 90.2 Ly/s 1.5 hour)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 32 F-302, 8 Raptors  
**Additional: **2 ABS, RP, 6 PRs, IMC, VOCS, LTSS, LPS, SD  
**Allocation: **Crew: 312, Additional Accommodations: 400 people  
**Mass:** 2,967,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **8.6 months  
**Built:** 0 (upgrade still not available)

**DN-306 Hercules Class  
****Description:** The Hercules is the dreadnought class of Terran ships. The technology the ship uses is far beyond any previous ship's class has as it has been a joint endeavor between the Terrans, Asgard and Guardians to find a viable platform for when the Vargas will show up. Practically all systems aboard the ship are technologically far more advanced than anything any of the three races has ever developed. While the Terrans have used the newly developed technologies to build the Hercules, the Guardians and the Asgard are building its equivalent.  
**Weapons:  
**- 1 Relativistic Antiproton Beam (S:2.6 PWh, D:8s, R: Ultra Long, FR: 0.3 r/min, warps shields)  
- 6 Heavy Plasma Beams ( S: 310 TWh, D:7s, R: Long, FR:2 r/min)  
- 16 Plasma Beam Weapons (S: 85 TWh, D:5s, Range: long, FR:4 r/min)  
- 16 Heavy Dual Plasma Repeaters (S: 310 MWh, R: Moderate, FR: 240 r/min)  
- 16 Heavy Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE: 53 MWh, R: Long, FR: 1200 r/min at 850 km/s)  
- 62 Point Defense Lasers (S:3 MWh, R: Short, FR: 180 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
- 3000 Hyper Drones (additional power through high frequency subspace band, bypass shields, high penetration, variable detonation yield)  
- 25 torpedo launchers (1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton, Mark IX Gate Buster 100 Megatons)  
**Size:** (L: 2025m, W: 770m, H: 370m)  
**Purpose:** Heavy Capital Ship, Flagship  
**Energy source:  
**- Four 1st Gen Enhanced Neutrino Ion Generators (PO: 32.82 PW, NI:50%)  
- ZPM (PO: 208 PW, SE: 55 EWh)  
- Backup: 4th Gen N/N Reactor (PO: 0.92 PW, NI:35%)  
**Defenses:  
**- Multidimensional Shields (S: 29.1 PWh, MRR: 241 PW, RT: 53min/6min, C: 1.16)  
- Fortress Shield (Deployable satellites, R: 500 miles, S: 690 PWh, MRR: 1150 PW)  
- Ablative Armor Layer, Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cloak, HSS  
- HDS  
- Internal Forcefields, Shielded Reactors, ISS  
- 120 Remotely Controlled Fighter Drones  
**Maneuverability:** Moderate  
**Propulsion: **GD, 6 Ion Engines, MT, 2 Intergalactic Hyperdrives (CS: 32.4 Ly/s, MS: 225 Ly/s for 1.5 hours)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 32 F-302c Vipers, 16 Raptors  
**Additional: **4 ABS, IT, RP, 18 PR, 2 IMC, AI Core, LTSS, LPS, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 426, Additional Accommodations: 700 people  
**Mass:** 78,717,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **18 months  
**Built: **0 (prototype will be built in a year)

**AF-307 Ares Class  
****Description:** Small and versatile, the Ares is a much smaller ship than the Daedalus. It is perfect for Patrol duty, support to larger vessels or by combining several ship into a single unit. His greatest advantage is that, while the Daedalus takes three months to be built, the Ares can be built in one month. His only real limitation is the lack of an intergalactic hyperdrive.  
**Weapons:  
**- 1 Plasma Beam Weapons (S: 2.5 TWh, D:5s, Range: long, FR:3 r/min)  
- 4 Dual Plasma Repeaters (S: 120 MWh , R: Moderate, FR:400 round/min)  
- 8 Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE: 38 MWh, R: Long, FR: 1200 r/min at 850 km/s)  
- 2 Torpedo Launchers (1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton)  
**Size:** (L: 150m, W: 42m, H: 26m)  
**Purpose:** support, assault in packs  
**Energy source:  
**- Two 4th Gen N/N Medium Reactors (PO: 425 TW, NI: 35%)  
- Backup: Six Naquadah Generators (PO: 1.2 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (S: 325 TWh, MRR: 425 TW, RT: 46 min, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Two Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, ISH (CS: 0.2 Ly/s, MS: 4.4 Ly/s for 1 hour)  
**Hangar Bay**: 6 Raptors  
**Additional: **1 ABS  
**Allocation: **Crew: 35, Additional Accommodations: 60 people  
**Mass:** 65,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **1.1 month  
**Built:** 0 (planned)

**SF-308 Hades Class  
****Description:** The smallest ship the Terrans have ever built. It can be used for patrol duty or as a spy ship, its intended purpose. His greatest advantage is that, while the Daedalus takes three months to be built, the Hades can be built in three weeks. His only real limitation is the lack of an intergalactic hyperdrive.  
**Weapons:  
**- 2 Heavy Dual Plasma Repeaters (S: 310 MWh , R: Moderate, FR:240 round/min)  
- 4 Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE: 38 MWh, R: Long, FR: 1200 r/min at 850 km/s)  
- 2 Torpedo Launchers (1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton, Mark IX Gate Buster 100 Megatons)  
**Size:** (L: 80, W: 28m, H: 15m)  
**Purpose:** Stealth Frigate, Spy Ship  
**Energy source:  
**- One 4th Gen N/N Medium Reactors (PO: 212 TW, NI: 35%)  
- Backup: Six Naquadah Generators (PO: 1.2 TW )  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (S: 88 TWh, MRR: 212 TW, RT: 25 min, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cyber Warfare,  
- Cloak, HSS  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **2 Ion Engines, MT, IT, ISH (CS: 0.9 Ly/s, MS: 5.4 Ly/s for 1 hour)  
**Hangar Bay**: 2 Raptors  
**Additional: **ABS  
**Allocation: **Crew: 35, Additional Accommodations: 60 people  
**Mass:** 11,200 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **3 weeks  
**Built:** 0 (planned)

**AC-309 Atena Class  
****Weapons:  
**- 56 Heavy Dual Plasma Repeaters (S:310MWh, R:Moderate, FR: 240 r/min)  
- 32 Point Defense Lasers (S:3 MWh, R: Short, FR: 180 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
- 1000 Asuran Drones  
- 14 Torpedo Launchers(1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton, Mark IX Gate Buster 100 Megatons)  
**Size: **(L: 525m, W: 220m, H: 95m)  
**Purpose: **Assault Carrier, Troop Transport  
**Energy source: **Two 4th Gen Large N/N Reactors (PO: 1.84 PW, NI: 35%)  
**Defenses:  
**- Asgard Shields (Strength: 760 TWh, MRR: 1.84 PW, RT: 25 minutes, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Internal Forcefields  
- Shielded Reactors  
**Maneuverability:** Low  
**Propulsion: **6 Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, IGH (CS: 2.4 Ly/s, MS: 76.7 Ly/s for 30 min)  
**12 Hangar Bays: **120 F-302s, 45 Raptors, 12 Hammer Head Drop-ships  
**Additional:** 12 ABS, ITs, Large RP, 35 PRs, 3 IMCs, AIC, LTSS, LPS, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 380, Additional Accommodations: 3200 people  
**Mass:** 1,981,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **6 months  
**Built:** 0 (prototype is being built)

**SC-310 Colossus Class  
****Weapons:  
**- 12 Plasma Beam Weapons (S: 85 TWh, D:5s, Range: long, FR:4 r/min)  
- 124 Heavy Dual Plasma Repeaters (S:310 MWh, R: Moderate, FR: 240 r/min)  
- 48 Heavy Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE:53 MWh, R: Long, FR: 1200 r/min at 850 km/s)  
- 120 Point Defense Lasers (S:3 MWh, R: Short, FR: 180 rounds/min, perfect accuracy)  
- 15000 Hyper Drones  
- 36 Torpedo Launchers(1 Kiloton, Mark VII 5 Megaton, Mark IX Gate Buster 100 Megatons)  
**Size: **(L: 3125m, W: 920m, H: 570m)  
**Purpose: **Carrier, CAC  
**Energy source:  
**- Four 1st Gen Enhanced Neutrino Ion Generators (PO: 32.82 PW, NI:50%)  
- ZPM ( S: 208 PW, SE: 55 EWh)  
- 4th Gen N/N Reactor (PO: 1 TW, NI: 35%)  
**Defenses:  
**- Multidimensional Shields (S: 11.5 PWh, MRR: 241 PW, RT: 21.2 min/3min, C: 1.16)  
- Fortress Shield (Deployable satellites, R: 500 miles, S: 690 PWh, MRR: 1150 PW)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
- ECM, ECCM  
- Cloak, HSS  
- HDS, IFs, Shielded Reactors  
- 420 Remotely Controlled Fighter Drones  
**Maneuverability:** Low  
**Propulsion: **12 Ion Engines, MTs, IDs, Intergalactic Hyperdrive (CS: 16.4 Ly/s, MS: 66.7 Ly/s for 3.5 hours)  
**Hangar Bays: **380 F-302, 70 Raptors, 34 Hammerhead drop-ships  
**Additional:** 22 ABS, ITs, 5 Large Ring Platforms, 35 PRs, 3 IMCs, AIC, LTSS, LPS, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 680, Additional Accommodations: 12000 people  
**Mass:** 138,213,000 metric tons  
**Buildtime: **22 months  
**Built:** 0 (prototype is being built)

**Aurora Class  
****Weapons:  
**- 6 Heavy Plasma Cannons (S:210 TWh, R: Long, FR:3 r/min)  
- 14 Intermediate Plasma Cannons (S:70 TWh, R: Moderate, FR: 5 r/min)  
- 50 Heavy Dual-Barrel Railguns (KE: 53 MWh, R: Long, FR: 1200 r/min)  
- 3000 Asuran Drones  
**Size:** (L: 3020m, W: 800m, H: 550m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship  
**Energy source: **One Heavy N/N Alterran Reactor (PO: 11 PW) - _upgraded  
_**Defenses:  
**- Aurora Shields (S: 9 PWh, MRR: 11 PW, RT: 50 min, C: 1.35) - _upgraded  
_- Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** low  
**Propulsion: **Ion Engines, Inertial Dampeners, IGH (CS: 7.4 Ly/s, MS: 52.2 Ly/s for 3 hours) -_upgraded  
_**Additional: **4 ABSs, IMC, Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 1,Additional Accommodations: 5000 people  
**Built: **9

**City-Ship  
****Weapons: **8000 Asuran Drones  
**Size:** (L: 3625m, W: 3625, H: 970m)  
**Purpose:** City-ship  
**Energy source: **3 ZPM (PO: 624 PW, SE: 165 EWh)  
**Defenses: **Multilayered Shields (S: 80 PWh, MRR: 624 PW, RT: 7 min, C: 1.52), Cloak  
**Maneuverability:** Very Low  
**Propulsion: **Six Ion Engines, IDs, Stardrive (CS: 130 Ly/s, MS: 420 Ly/s)  
**2 Hangar Bays**: 24 Puddle Jumpers  
**Additional:** Internal Transporters, Ring Platform,  
**Allocation: **65,000 people  
**Mass:** 222,451,000 metric tons  
**Built: **2 (Borealis under repairs)

* * *

**Tok'ra**

**Description: **After the fall of the Goa'uld, the Tok'ra have devoted their life to chase down the few Goa'uld still alive. Little else is known about what the Tok'ra have been up to in the last few year, especially after the death of Selmak and Sam's father. Relations have quickly deteriorated to the point where there is almost no contact with them anymore. The reason why this has happened is not completely clear, but it is a firm belief of the TIA that the Tok'ra are not happy with how things have turned out. Although the Tok'ra have always stated that they want nothing more than for the Goa'uld to disappear, we believe the Tok'ra thought how they would be the most advanced race and the one to lead the galaxy. As this didn't happen and as the death of their queen has precluded any possibility for them to grow as a race, it is possible that the Tok'ra have no certain goal in life and that they are a slowly dying race. All attempts to contact them after the formation of the SGA has been discarded.  
**Government type:** Council  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** High (5)/High (5)  
**Planets: **1 planet, unknown location  
**Population:** a few thousands  
**Threat assessment:** unknown (the Tok'ra are not believed to be enemies, but their isolation is of some concern)  
**Ships:** unknown

* * *

**Tollans**

**Description: **The Tollans were once the most advanced race of humans in the galaxy. It is believed they have been completely wiped out by the Goa'uld. The Tollans, with all their technology, ended up being overconfident, thinking no one could ever harm them since their planet was defended by extremely advanced ion cannons. The Tollans had first been forced to renounce their moral high ground by having to build devastating bombs that uses phase-shifting technology in order to bypass Earth's Iris, only to be bombarded from orbit once they didn't deliver what promised.

* * *

**Travelers**

**Description: **The Travelers are the most advanced race of humans in the Pegasus galaxy and the only known human race capable of space travel. The Travelers have chosen to leave their planet and live in space in order to escape the threat of the Wraith. Although the Travelers do not possess the necessary strength to fight the Wraith, it is still believed they have many hundreds of ships at their disposal spread throughout the galaxy. Such ships have been modified to support as many passengers as possible. Their ships are currently in dire need of repairs as the Travelers do not possess any planetary infrastructure capable of repairing them or building new ones.  
**Government type:** Captains aboard ships are in command  
**Knowledge/Technological Level:** Moderate-to-High (5+)/Moderate-to-High (6)  
**Population:** ~23,000  
**Planets:** None  
**Additional Information:** Highly industrialized, unknown military structure or size, technologically at least 100 years ahead of Earth.  
**Ships:** Only two different type of ship had been noticed so far

**Cruiser  
****Weapons:  
**- 6 Traveler Pulse Cannons (S:50 TWh, R: Moderate, FR: 8 r/min) - _retrofit  
_**Size:** (L: 180m, W: 140m, H: 35m)  
**Purpose:** Generational ship  
**Energy source: **unknown type (PO: 340 TW)  
**Defenses:  
**- Traveler Shields (S: 420 TWh, MRR: 3 PW, RT: 68 min, C: 1.65)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** high  
**Propulsion: **Ion Engines, Inertial Dampeners, ISH (CS: 0.12 Ly/s, MS: 1.1 Ly/s for 1.5 hours)  
**Additional: **Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 1,Additional Accommodations: 200 people  
**Built: **1 known (believed ~100)

**Aurora Class  
****Weapons:  
**- 14 Traveler Pulse Cannons (S:50 TWh, R: Moderate, FR: 8 r/min) - _retrofit  
_- 1200 Drones  
**Size:** (L: 3020m, W: 800m, H: 550m)  
**Purpose:** Capital Ship  
**Energy source: **One Heavy Alterran Reactor (PO: 3 PW)  
**Defenses:  
**- Aurora Shields (S: 4.5 PWh, MRR: 3 PW, RT: 90 min, C: 1.35)  
- Standard Armor Plating  
**Maneuverability:** low  
**Propulsion: **Ion Engines, Inertial Dampeners, ISH (CS: 0.2 Ly/s, MS: 1.2 Ly/s for 3 hours)  
**Additional: **Self-destruct  
**Allocation: **Minimal Crew: 1,Additional Accommodations: 5000 people  
**Built: **1

* * *

**Vargas**

**Description: **No information is available at this time.  
**Threat assessment:** Ultra High (biggest problem is the lack of any intel on the race.)

* * *

**Wraith**

**Description:** The Wraith are a ten thousand years old race that has been created by accident inside a lab where the Lanteans were making experiments on the telepathic abilities of the Iratus Bug. It is believed the Lanteans have accidentally created a retrovirus that has quickly spread throughout the lab, changing all the Lanteans present into Wraith. How the Wraith has from that point on managed to increase their numbers so quickly is still unknown, but the most plausible explanation is that the Lanteans turned Wraith, used the same virus on an inhabited world, that way gaining an army in a very short time. After the war with the Lanteans the Wraith quickly realized there wasn't enough food in the galaxy to sustain their growing population. The only solution was to go to sleep for longer periods of time in order for the human population to grow in number before the next cycle of culling. This trend has gone for thousands of years, until one day the Terrans have arrived into the Pegasus galaxy and everything from that point on has changed. The Wraith are now losing the war against the Terrans and their allies and combined with the shortage of food/humans the Wraith must have decided to return into hibernation. What is their final goal is still unknown, but the TIA's assessment is that the Wraith will try to regroup before striking again.  
**Government type:** Factions ruled by queens  
**Knowledge/Technology used:** Moderate-to-High (6+)/Moderate-to-High (6+)  
**Planets: **unknown  
**Population:** unknown  
**Army:** same as population  
**Threat assessment:** High (the Wraith still pose a high threat. It is our recommendation that they need to be found and dealt with once and for all before they can regroup and grow in strength)  
**Ships:**

**Dart  
****Weapons: **2 Small Baryon Cannons (S: 140 MWh, R: Short, FR: 15r/min)  
**Size:** (L: 10m, W: 4.5m, H: 1.5)  
**Purpose:** Space Fighter  
**Energy source: **One Small Wraith Generator (PO: 120 MW)  
**Defenses: **Organic Hull  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Standard sublight engines  
**Additional:** Culling Beams, DHD, Self-Destruct  
**Allocation: **Crew: 1  
**Built:** believed tens of thousands

**Scout  
****Weapons: **unknown  
**Size:** (L: 20m, W: 9m, H: 4)  
**Purpose:** scout, shuttle  
**Energy source: **Unknown  
**Defenses: **Organic Hull  
**Maneuverability:** High  
**Propulsion: **Wraith sublight, Wraith Thrusters, Limited Interstellar Hyperdrive  
**Allocation: **Crew: 1, unknown passengers  
**Built:** unknown

**Cruiser  
****Weapons: **12 Baryon Pulse Cannons(S: 60 TWh, Range: long, FR:4 r/min)  
**Size:** (L: 2500m, W: 1500m, H: 600m)  
**Purpose:** escort, recon  
**Energy source: **Unknown  
**Defenses: **Trinium/Organic Hull  
**Maneuverability:** low-to-moderate  
**Propulsion: **Wraith sublight, Wraith Thrusters, Limited Interstellar Hyperdrive  
**Allocation: **Crew: 3, 800 passengers  
**Complement: **100 darts  
**Built:** unknown

**Hive  
****Weapons:  
**- 8 Heavy Baryon Pulse Cannons(S: 200 TWh, Range: long, FR:3 r/min)  
- 12 Baryon Pulse Cannons(S: 60 TWh, Range: long, FR:4 r/min)  
**Size:** (L: 2500m, W: 1500m, H: 600m)  
**Purpose:** escort, recon  
**Energy source: **Unknown  
**Defenses: **Trinium/Organic Hull, Regenerative Hull  
**Maneuverability:** low  
**Propulsion: **Wraith sublight, Wraith Thrusters, Limited Interstellar Hyperdrive  
**Allocation: **Crew: 3, tens of thousands  
**Complement: **1000 darts  
**Built:** unknown


End file.
